Marium, who is five months’ old, was rescued off Thailand’s southern Krabi province after she was separated from her mother
She eats sea grass, drinks milk from a rubber glove, snuggles up to passing canoes and frequently beaches herself. But these idiosyncrasies have not stopped an entire nation from falling in love with her.
Thailand has a new national sweetheart – an orphaned baby dugong called Marium.
Continue reading...Epic journey by female fox includes fastest movement rate for species ever recorded
An arctic fox has walked more than 3,500km (2,000 miles) from Norway to Canada in just 76 days, astonishing researchers at the Norwegian Polar Institute.
The animal, known as a coastal or blue fox, was fitted with a tracking device in July 2017. It left Spitsbergen in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago on 26 March 2018. After 21 days and 1,512 km out on the sea ice, it landed in Greenland on 16 April 2018. Its journey continued to Ellesmere Island in Canada, where it arrived on 1 July.
Continue reading...Emotional support animals, or ESAs, have exploded across the US in recent years, with rising numbers of pet owners getting their animals certified online. Unlike in the UK, ESAs have legal status in the US on a tier below traditional service animals, but the backlash has begun – with critics complaining the system is being abused by regular pet owners who want to take their animals into unsuitable public spaces. The Guardian's Richard Sprenger – animal lover but pet sceptic – meets ESA owners and their animals across North America.
Continue reading...Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Angola and Namibia call for embargo suspension to allow sale of hugely valuable stockpiles
Southern African leaders have renewed calls for a lifting of the ban on the ivory trade as debate over the “unfair” embargo escalates.
At a wildlife economic summit in Zimbabwe, leaders of the five countries that make up the Kavango-Zambezi conservation area – Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Angola and Namibia – raised the issue ahead of the August conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Continue reading...A bug-eyed, dreadlocked pooch called Scamp the Tramp took top honours on Friday at the 31st annual World's Ugliest Dog contest. Scamp beat 18 other contestants at the event, held in Northern California. Organisers say the contest is about bringing attention to the needs of rescue dogs.
Continue reading...Scamp the Tramp, a bug-eyed, dreadlocked pooch, took top honours on Friday at the 31st annual World’s Ugliest Dog Contest.
Owner Yvonne Morones won an appearance with Scamp on the Today show, $1,500 in cash, $1,500 to donate to an animal shelter and a trophy the size of a rottweiler.
Continue reading...Study marks worst winter on record for beekeepers, despite intensive push to stem losses
Beekeepers across the US lost four in 10 of their honeybee colonies over the past year, as the worst winter on record for tracked bee populations raised fresh concerns over the plight of the crucial pollinators.
Over the past winter, 37% of honeybee colonies were lost to beekeepers, the worst winter decline recorded in the 13-year history of a nationwide survey aimed at charting bees’ fortunes. Overall, 40% of colonies died off over the entire year to April, which is above the 38% average since the survey began.
Continue reading...Residents of Norilsk in northern Siberia have been stunned by the sight of a starving polar bear hundreds of miles from its natural Arctic habitat. People captured footage of the bear as it searched a garbage dump for food. The climate crisis has been damaging polar bears’ sea-ice habitats and forced them to scavenge more for food on land, bringing them into contact with humans and inhabited areas
Continue reading...Humane killing practices are virtually unknown in the majority of Thailand’s abattoirs, say campaigners, with millions of pigs dying in pain
All photographs by Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals
Warning: this article includes some graphic images that some readers may find distressing
Photos of shirtless workers clubbing pigs with bats in a Thai slaughterhouse have prompted campaigners to call for wider training and monitoring of humane welfare practices.
Undercover images taken in the central Thailand abattoir and shared with the Guardian also shows workers stunning the animals on their eyes with what appear to be homemade stunning machines, contrary to equipment recommendations.
Continue reading...Pepperdine professor photobombed by lobster mobster bird happy to see picture of roll reversal go viral
Alicia Jessop knew Friday was going to be memorable, but she didn’t realize it would be a day she would never forget.
Related: 'We live in a lobstocracy': Maine town is feeling the effects of climate change
Continue reading...Experts say region is losing the battle to stop the biggest animal disease outbreak the planet has ever faced
South-east Asia is battling to contain the spread of highly contagious African swine fever, known as “pig Ebola”, which has already led to the culling of millions of pigs in China and Vietnam.
African swine fever, which is harmless to humans but fatal to pigs, was discovered in China in August, where it has caused havoc, leading to more than 1.2m pigs being culled. China is home to almost half of the world’s pigs and the news sent the global price of pork soaring.
Continue reading...‘Other than being a bit cold and a bit smelly he still had a full appetite,’ rescuer says
A miniature donkey has caused a stink after falling into a large septic tank, sparking a challenging rescue north of Brisbane.
Firefighters were called to a Morayfield property on Thursday night after its panicked owners called to say their donkey had tumbled into the concrete tank and was wedged firmly inside.
Continue reading...Swiss expert behind successful reintroduction in Bavaria is training UK conservationists
“If any beast has the devil’s strength in him it is the wildcat,” wrote a 15th-century hunting author – but historic persecution has brought the wildcat to the brink of extinction in Britain.
Now there is a new attempt to breed hundreds of wildcats in captivity and return the shy animal to England and Wales, where it has not roamed for 150 years.
Continue reading...Researchers still fearful as approximately 10,000 to 15,000 are killed every year
Elephant poaching rates in Africa are declining, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications.
The annual poaching mortality rate fell from a high of more than 10% in 2011 to less than 4% in 2017, but the researchers warned that current levels were still unsustainable and could spell trouble for the future of the animals on the continent.
Continue reading...Incredibly rare animal is photographed by camera trap in the forests of Sichuan province
A nature reserve in China has captured what is believed to be the world’s first image of an albino panda.
The Wolong national nature reserve in the south-western province of Sichuan released a photo taken in April of an all-white giant panda in the wild, crossing through a forest.
Continue reading...65-year-old Californian man attacked off coast of Maui in first such death since 2015
A man has died in Hawaii after being attacked by a shark, local officials have said, the first such fatality in the state in four years.
The victim, a 65-year-old from California, is believed to have been swimming in clear, flat conditions about 60 yards from the shore at on the west coast of Maui on Saturday morning when the attack happened.
Continue reading...Australian science agency says there are a ‘negligible number of human deaths’ from snake bites in Australia
The popular suggestion that Australia is home to the world’s deadliest snakes is largely a myth, with the risk of bites and death far greater across Asia, Africa and South America, the nation’s science agency has said.
Herpetologist Ruchira Somaweera from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said the myth was born a few decades ago and came out of a study of the relatively high toxicity levels found in Australian species, such as brown snakes.
Continue reading...British specialist among those aiming to develop ‘next generation’ treatment that could help millions of victims each year
Scientists in five countries, including the UK, hope to find a universal cure for snakebite using the same technology that discovered HIV antibodies.
A new consortium of venom specialists in India, Kenya, Nigeria, Britain and the US will locate and develop antibodies to treat critical illness from snakebites, which harm nearly 3 million people worldwide each year.
Continue reading...Southern African countries to appeal to watchdog for permission to sell stockpiled ivory worth more than £230m
Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia are making a fresh appeal for a global watchdog to lift restrictive measures on the trade in raw ivory.
The watchdog, Cites, prohibits unregulated commercial trade in endangered species around the world.
Continue reading...High-ranking mothers lead sons to groups of females and keep guard while they mate
Their mothers are so keen for them to father children that they usher them in front of promising partners, shield them from violent competitors and dash the chances of other males by charging them while they are at it.
For a bonobo mother, it is all part of the parenting day, and analysis finds the hard work pays off. Males of the species that live with their mothers are three times more likely to father offspring than those whose mothers are absent.
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