Category Archives: Animals

Sniffing out a bargain: how dog-friendly are Britain’s shops?

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With more retailers welcoming pets, our reporter ventures out with her puppy Calisto to see if we really are a nation of animal lovers

It’s a Saturday morning and I’m crammed into a small changing room, attempting to try on a new pair of trousers. It’s always a struggle with the multiple layers of autumnal clothing, and I’m even more flustered than usual. Because also crammed into the tiny space is a large dog, giving me a quizzical look and clearly wondering if this is the start of a new game. She quickly decides, yes, yes it is.

Dog ownership is booming. According to the Pet Food Manufacturers’ Association, there are 12.5m dogs in the UK this year, with 33% of households having a canine companion, while the Kennel Club is among the charities and organisations that have reported a surge in puppy ownership during the Covid pandemic.

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National Trust sees off culture war rebellion in an AGM of discontent

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After the worries over ‘wokeness’, hunting was the day’s big issue

Those who care deeply about the stately homes of Britain tuned in on Saturday from a dozen countries around the world to watch a peculiar spectator sport: the National Trust annual general meeting.

The stage was set for a tournament that promised one victor: either the reforming board of the National Trust, determined to move with the times, or a rebellious contingent calling for a return to first principles of preservation and established scholarship.

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Cyclist fends off 500lb bear after getting bitten in Alaska

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Man said he yelled at and kicked the animal as it charged him along a riverbed before it retreated

A cyclist confronted and bitten by a 500lb bear while out riding in Alaska told authorities he yelled at and kicked the animal as it ran after him, along a riverbed.

The incident last Tuesday occurred in Cantwell, close to the intersection between the Jack and Nenana rivers, the Alaska department of public safety said.

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‘This is a place of death’: the fight for a meat-free world – video

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Humans' relationship with animals is under greater focus than ever, as part of a drive to lessen our impact on the planet. In the UK, animal rights activists, buoyed by the rise in veganism and a developing understanding of animal sentience, have spotted an opportunity to grow what has traditionally been a fringe cause. 

The great majority of these activists are non-violent, dispensing with some of the tactics of their predecessors and aiming to harness this momentum to win hearts and minds. But can they really force the changes they are demanding?

  • This is episode one of a new series called Human Animal which looks at our relationship with animals, after the pandemic exposed just how problematic that can be.
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Boom time for Cape Verde’s sea turtles as conservation pays off

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The number of nesting sites on the archipelago has risen dramatically, but global heating sees male population plummet

It’s nearly midnight as Delvis Semedo strolls along an empty beach on the Cape Verdean island of Maio. Overhead, the dense Milky Way pierces the darkness. A sea turtle emerges from the crashing waves and lumbers up the shore. Then another. And another.

Semedo is one of about 100 local people who patrol Maio’s beaches each night during nesting season to collect data on the turtles and protect them from poachers. This year has been busier than usual. Sea turtle nests on the islands of Sal, Maio and Boa Vista – the primary nesting grounds for loggerheads in Cape Verde – have soared in the last five years. Cape Verde’s environment ministry puts nest numbers in 2020 across all 10 islands at almost 200,000, up from 10,725 in 2015.

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Pablo Escobar’s ‘cocaine hippos’ are people too, US court rules

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Recognition as ‘interested persons’ is a legal first in the US, allowing animals to have their interests heard in court

The offspring of hippos once owned by Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar can be recognized as people or “interested persons” with legal rights in the US following a federal court order.

The case involves a lawsuit against the Colombian government over whether to kill or sterilize the hippos, whose numbers are growing at a fast pace and pose a threat to biodiversity.

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Owners offload dogs bought in lockdown by pretending they are strays

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Rescue centres say they are seeing more and more pets their owners are now too busy to look after

People are pretending that dogs they acquired during lockdown are strays so that rescue centres take them in, after failing to sell them online, animal rescue charities and shelters have warned.

Figures from March revealed that more than 3.2m pets were bought by UK households during lockdown. Since Covid restrictions were lifted and people have started to return to the office, charities have reported a growing trend of people abandoning their pandemic pets as they no longer have as much time for them.

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‘I was terrified’: the vet sterilizing Pablo Escobar’s cocaine hippos

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The progeny of animals brought illegally to Colombia and kept in the drug lord’s private zoo must now be put on birth control

When Gina Paola Serna studied to become a biologist and veterinarian in Colombia, she never expected to one day be tasked with neutering an invasive herd of hippos that once belonged to Pablo Escobar.

When they were smuggled into the drug lord’s private zoo in the 1980s, there were just four hippos. But in the 26 years since Escobar’s death, their numbers have steadily grown : the herd now includes about 80 animals – threatening to disrupt ecosystems in Colombia. So now, Serna spends her days tracking and sterilizing the hulking riverine mammals.

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Eldest of world’s last two northern white rhinos retired from breeding programme

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Retirement of Najin, 32, leaves her daughter Fatu as the only egg donor in embryo implantation scheme

One of the world’s last two northern white rhinos is being retired from a breeding programme aimed at saving the species from extinction.

Najin, 32, is the mother of Fatu, who is now the only donor left in the programme, which aims to implant artificially developed embryos into another more abundant species of rhino in Kenya.

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One of Maryland’s escaped zebras dies in illegal trap

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Authorities have belatedly reported that one of the group of African mammals that bolted from a farm died last month

One of a group of escaped zebras that have spent almost two months running wild through the east Maryland suburbs has died, authorities said, in a blow to thousands who have followed the animals’ bid for freedom.

The fate of the zebras, who bolted from a farm near Upper Marlboro in late August, has captured the attention of people locally and beyond, with a number of Marylanders sharing videos and photos of the animals roaming and grazing on residents’ lawns.

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‘Overlooked’: 14,000 invertebrate species lost habitat in Black Summer bushfires, study finds

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Scientists say the animals are vital to ecosystem and true number affected is probably far higher

More than 14,000 species of invertebrate lost habitat during Australia’s 2019-20 bushfires, according to a post-fire analysis that has recommended a doubling of the number of species listed as threatened.

The research, prepared for the federal government by scientists with the national environmental science program (NESP), found the number of insects, spiders, worms and other invertebrates affected by the disaster was much greater than the tally of vertebrates impacted.

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Huge sunfish weighing up to two tonnes found off coast of Ceuta – video

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A gigantic sunfish found tangled in tuna fishing nets in the Mediterranean could weigh up to 2000kg, according to experts. The fish was  measured at 3.2 metres long and 2.9 metres wide, a record find for Ceuta, a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa. When the sunfish was weighed it almost broke a 100kg scale. Enrique Ostalé, a marine biologist, said he had heard of sunfish this size only in books 

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Sir David Amess obituary

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Dedicated Conservative politician who served as Southend West’s MP for nearly 25 years

Sir David Amess, who has died aged 69 after being stabbed while holding a constituents’ surgery at a church in Leigh-on-Sea, was the Conservative MP for Southend West in Essex. Though he spent more than half his life in the Commons without ever attaining ministerial office, the likelihood is that he would not have wanted it any other way.

He devoted his career to the promotion of his constituencies – first Basildon, then from 1997 Southend West – and to dealing with their voters’ concerns. He had a high local profile and was always willing to meet constituents, advertising his regular weekly surgeries in advance.

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A herd of ‘cocaine hippos’ from Pablo Escobar’s private zoo are being sterilized

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The 80-strong bloat, originally part of the Colombian drug lord’s estate, present an environmental concern as an invasive species

A group of rampant hippopotamuses, introduced by the late Colombia drug lord Pablo Escobar to his private zoo, are being sterilized by the country’s wildlife services, after mounting concern that the 80-strong herd presented a potential environmental disaster as an invasive species.

The so-called “cocaine hippos”, whose number has more than doubled since 2012, were sterilized after worries have mounted over their environmental impact, including a threat to human safety.

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‘I kept finding snakes’: more than 90 rattlesnakes found under California home

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Rescuers used 24in snake pole to remove snakes preparing to hibernate from mountainside home in Santa Rosa

Al Wolf is used to clearing one or two snakes from under houses but recently was called by a woman who said she had seen rattlesnakes scurry under her northern California house and was surprised to find more than 90 rattlesnakes getting ready to hibernate.

Wolf, director of Sonoma County Reptile Rescue, said he crawled under the mountainside home in Santa Rosa and found a rattlesnake right away, then another and another. He got out from under the house, grabbed two buckets, put on long, safety gloves, and went back in.

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Orphaned gorilla famous for selfie with rangers dies aged 14

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Ndakasi died in arms of her ‘lifelong friend, Andre Bauma’ says Virunga national park in DRC

Ndakasi, a mountain gorilla that famously posed in the background of a selfie taken by rangers at Virunga national park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has died at 14 after a long illness, the park said.

“It is with heartfelt sadness that Virunga announces the death of beloved orphaned mountain gorilla, Ndakasi, who had been under the care of the park’s Senkwekwe Center for more than a decade,” a statement from the park said.

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‘Genius dogs’ can learn names of more than 100 toys, study finds

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Six canines, all border collies, have proved some possess a remarkable grasp of human language

Your dog might follow commands such as “sit”, or become uncontrollably excited at the mention of the word “walkies”, but when it comes to remembering the names of toys and other everyday items, most seem pretty absent-minded.

Now a study of six “genius dogs” has advanced our understanding of dogs’ memories, suggesting some of them possess a remarkable grasp of the human language.

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Rare one in 30 million orange lobster rescued from grocery store tank

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The manager of the Ontario store noticed the carroty crustacean was being ‘picked on’ and took it to the Toronto aquarium

An extremely rare orange lobster was rescued from certain death – and the humiliation of spending its final days in a grocery store tank – after the manager noticed it was being “picked on” by the other lobsters.

“Obviously it stood out. It’s not every day you see a lobster that looks like it’s pre-cooked walking around,” said Niki Lundquist, whose husband manages the grocery store in Ontario’s Durham region.

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