A hulking grizzly bear has found online stardom after he was caught groggily emerging from hibernation on camera. Canadian ranger Nicole Gagnon filmed the end of Boo's hibernation on her phone, a moment she said she had been waiting to document for eight years. It has since been viewed over 100,000 times on Twitter. Boo, 18, draws thousands of tourists every year to his 20-acre enclosure near the town of Golden, Canada
Continue reading...Category Archives: Animals
‘Fright of her life’: Gold Coast woman finds five-metre python on her doorstep
Queensland snake catcher says 80kg albino Burmese python found in Oxenford is the largest he has come across in 27 years
As a seasoned snake catcher, Tony Harrison is used to the people the claiming there is a five-metre snake on their doorstep. But for the first time on Monday, the caller wasn’t exaggerating.
“This was the largest snake I have come across in 27 years,” Harrison said. “The poor old lady who opened the front door to see it there got the fright of her life”
Continue reading...Win for conservation as African black rhino numbers rise
Slow recovery due to relocating groups and stronger protection through law enforcement
Numbers of African black rhinos in the wild have risen by several hundred, a rare boost in the conservation of a species driven to near extinction by poaching.
Black rhinos are still in grave danger but the small increase – an annual rate of 2.5% over six years, has swollen the population from 4,845 in 2012 to an estimated 5,630 in 2018, giving hope that efforts put into saving the species are paying off.
Continue reading...‘Wonderchicken’: oldest fossil of modern bird discovered
Tiny creature, half the size of a mallard, found in rocks dating back to dinosaur age
Experts have discovered a fossil of the world’s oldest known modern bird – a diminutive creature about half the size of a mallard duck.
Dubbed the Wonderchicken, the remains were found in rocks dating to about 66.8m to 66.7m years ago, revealing that the bird was active shortly before the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs 66m years ago.
Continue reading...Birth of wild tapir offers hope for Brazil’s endangered ecosystem
Researchers believe the calf was born in January and a second may be on its way
Hopes for a recovery of Brazil’s most endangered ecosystem have been given a boost by the first birth of a wild tapir in Rio de Janeiro’s Atlantic Forest for more than a century.
Scientists said video clips of the baby tapir proved the initial success of a re-introduction strategy for the threatened mammal, which is often described as “a forest gardener” because it plays a vital role in the dispersal of seeds.
Continue reading...Penguins openly explore Chicago aquarium closed due to Covid-19 – video
An aquarium in Chicago has let its penguins wander around freely after closing to visitors indefinitely due to the coronavirus outbreak. The Shedd Aquarium said on social media: 'While this may be a strange time for us, these days feel normal for animals at Shedd'
- Wuhan's cat rescuer: the man saving pets abandoned by Covid-19 – video
- Coronavirus: latest developments
Kenya’s rare white female giraffe ‘killed by poachers’
Death of giraffe and her calf leave just one male specimen alive
Kenya’s only female white giraffe and her calf have been killed by poachers, conservationists have said, in a major blow to conservation of the rare animals found nowhere else in the world.
The bodies of the two giraffes were found “in a skeletal state after being killed by armed poachers” in Garissa in eastern Kenya, the Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy said in a statement.
Continue reading...Dog finds home after nearly six years in Kansas City shelter
Merrick adopted after benefactor paid $3,000 for his photograph to appear on a giant billboard
A dog who waited more than five and a half years in a Kansas City shelter for adoption has found a permanent home after a benefactor paid $3,000 for his photograph to appear on a giant billboard.
Merrick, a six-year-old mixed breed, sat for dozens of photoshoots and videos in a prolonged but unsuccessful social media campaign to find him a home during more than 2,000 days’ confinement at the Humane Society shelter.
Continue reading...Burning calories: pig starts farm fire by excreting pedometer
Seventy-five square metres of farm near Leeds set alight after copper in pedometer battery reacted with dung and dry hay
Firefighters in North Yorkshire have tackled a blaze that broke out after a pig swallowed a pedometer which then combusted in its pen after excretion.
The fire crews were called to a blaze covering 75 square metres at four pigpens in Bramham, near Leeds, on Saturday afternoon.
Continue reading...Can my dog or cat spread coronavirus? – video explainer
The number of people worldwide infected with the new coronavirus has exceeded 100,000 and the disease is continuing to spread, but what role do pets - if any - have in the outbreak?
After a dog in Hong Kong reportedly tested ‘weak positive’ for coronavirus, causing some alarm among pet owners, the Guardian’s Helen Davidson answers some of the most pressing questions surrounding domestic animals and coronavirus
- Wuhan’s cat rescuer: the man saving pets abandoned during coronavirus outbreak – video
- Coronavirus: latest developments
‘The best thing about Wellington’: Mittens the cat has paws all over New Zealand capital
Turkish Angora roams tattoo parlours, office towers and churches, posing for social media snapshots along the way
A feline that roams New Zealand’s capital city and is welcomed into tattoo parlours, hairdressers and office towers has become a social media star, with 30,000 followers who track his every movement online.
Mittens first came to attention in 2018 after repeatedly wandering inner-city dwellings, including the university, the post office, and a Catholic church. Mittens was also reportedly taken to the police station by concerned locals.
Continue reading...Anger as F1 teams get go-ahead to drive on Dutch nature reserve
Teams allowed to take beach route to get to Netherlands’ first F1 grand prix in 35 years
The return of Formula One to the Netherlands after 35 years has become mired in controversy after two racing teams got the green light to drive across a beach nature reserve to ensure their staff avoid traffic on the way to the circuit.
The teams of Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri will be allowed to drive from their hotels along two miles of beach within the Noordvoort reserve, a popular resting spot for seals and breeding birds located between the Zandvoort racetrack and the North Sea.
Continue reading...Red pandas are actually two separate species, study finds
Scientists found substantial divergences between Chinese red pandas and Himalayan red pandas in three genetic markers
Red pandas, the bushy-tailed and russet-furred mammals that dwell in Asia’s high forests, are not a single species but rather two distinct ones, according to the most comprehensive genetic study to date on these endangered animals.
Scientists said on Wednesday they found substantial divergences between the two species – Chinese red pandas and Himalayan red pandas – in three genetic markers in an analysis of DNA from 65 of the animals.
Continue reading...Shenzhen could be first city in China to ban eating of dogs and cats
Officials says move reflects bond between pets and people – ‘the consensus of all human civilisation’ – rather than coronavirus fears
Shenzhen is set to become the first city in mainland China to ban the eating of dogs and cats, if a draft regulation released by the municipal government in a wider push to restrict the consumption of wild animals is approved.
On Monday, China’s National People’s Congress issued an order to ban all consumption of wild animal meat and further restrict the wildlife trade nationwide. The measures are expected to be enshrined in the country’s wildlife protection law later this year.
Continue reading...Uganda’s ‘locust commander’ leads the battle against a new enemy
The army has been called in to eliminate the insects swarming across Africa, but their mission is dangerous and unending
- Photographs by Edward Echwalu for the Guardian
Sitting at a plastic table in the garden of Timisha hotel in Soroti, eastern Uganda, Major General Samuel Kavuma takes a drag of his cigarette and looks down at his phone, which has barely stopped ringing for the past hour.
A military figure for nearly 40 years, Kavuma fought the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgent group. Now, he’s become the “locust commander”, the man leading the fight against the country’s worst locust outbreak in decades.
Continue reading...Sydney baboon escape: police confirm three animals recaptured at Royal Prince Alfred hospital
NSW police say they were called to incident next to University of Sydney in Camperdown area of the city
Three baboons have been recaptured after they were spotted on the loose at a major Sydney hospital, triggering a police response and a flurry of interest online.
Police told Guardian Australia on Tuesday evening that they were attending “an incident of that nature” when asked if reports of baboons on the loose were true.
Continue reading...Coronavirus closures reveal vast scale of China’s secretive wildlife farm industry
Peacocks, porcupines and pangolins among species bred on 20,000 farms closed in wake of virus
Nearly 20,000 wildlife farmsraising species including peacocks, civet cats, porcupines, ostriches, wild geese and boar have been shut down across China in the wake of the coronavirus, in a move that has exposed the hitherto unknown size of the industry.
Until a few weeks ago wildlife farming was still being promoted by government agencies as an easy way for rural Chinese people to get rich.
Continue reading...California street shut down after 40,000 bees swarm from hotel
Several people hospitalized in Pasadena after Africanized bees emerge from hotel’s eaves: ‘Something set them off’
A swarm of as many as 40,000 Africanized bees sent several people to hospital and closed a street in California, after swarming from the eaves of a Howard Johnson Inn.
Related: Ursus urbinus: 'elderly' 400lb bear spotted roaming Los Angeles suburb
Continue reading...Paris launches emergency bed bugs hotline
New campaign includes advice on how to prevent and treat an infestation, and a number to call for expert help
The French government launched a campaign Thursday, complete with an emergency number, to combat an influx of unwelcome visitors that have left Parisians in despair: bedbugs that have settled in homes and hotels to feed, uninvited, on human blood.
After disappearing from France in the 1950s, the insects have made a resurgence, according to the ministry of housing, which cited international travel and growing resistance to insecticide as the main causes.
Continue reading...Rare sighting of lynx family crossing road in Manitoba – video
Driver Shaun Kirchmann spotted an entire family of the wild cats crossing the road in the Canadian Province of Manitoba as he made his weekly commute home. He pulled over and filmed the mother lynx and her five kittens before they disappeared into the trees. The wild cats spend much of their life hidden in thick forest and are rarely seen in groups
Continue reading...