Video: Kitty & Rooster, Weird Friendship

A very unusual, long lasting friendship between a kitten and a rooster.

Bird Flu Fears Spur Tower of London to Move Ravens Indoors

The famous ravens of the Tower of London have been moved indoors to protect them from the deadly strain of bird flu now threatening Britain.

The H5N1 strain of avian influenza, first identified in China, has reached nearby France where in the past week two dead ducks were diagnosed as carrying the virus. The British government now says that bird flu is likely to arrive in the country.

English legend says that a terrible evil will befall the kingdom if the Tower of London loses its ravens, which have lived at the landmark for more than 300 years.

Red Panda Finds Mate Online

There is living proof that you can find love online. At least that is the case for a red panda named Fagan at the Kansas City Zoo, television station KMBC reported.

The zoo went online to find Fagan a companion. The Minnesota Zoo responded that its Betsy might make a good mate.

"So we were just hoping the two would click and they have," zoo supervisor Cinnamon Williams said.

Betsy is now living in Fagan's pen.

Dog Nose Art

Looking for unique and unusual note cards? You've come to the right place for specialty note cards by the most unusual artist - a Schnauzer!

Oscar has unleashed his artistic talents by creating dog nose art that is then color-enhanced and turned into note cards.

Animal Planet :: Puppy Bowl

Animal Planet has jacked up the aw! factor and guaranteed that nothing on television will be as fluffy as their very own Puppy Bowl II.

Their Puppy Bowl site features a party-planning guide for the big day, athlete pics, and the opportunity to vote for Most Valuable Player.

Mighty mice

Statistics are hard to come by, but Sue Leary, president of the Alternatives Research and Development Foundation of Jenkintown, Pa., which tries to limit the use of animals in experiments, estimates that there might be 90 million mice under study in labs around the world.

The uncanny similarity between mice and men, as well as the relative ease with which the little rascals can be cloned and genetically altered, have helped make the mouse the lab animal of choice for studying lupus, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis and cancers of all kinds.

The Transgenic Mouse Facility at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine reported using 42,000 lab animals, the vast majority mice, in experiments in 1999. Today that figure has more than doubled to 100,000, Newcomer said, and the population is rising by 20 percent annually.

The animals represent more than 1,300 genetic strains, officials say. Their care and feeding cost the school $10 million a year.

Paradise found for L.A. parrots

Every afternoon at an intersection on the border of the foothill towns of Arcadia and Temple City, an hour before dusk, successive flocks of four, six, 10, as many as 30 red-crowned parrots appear from the west. They are returning to their roosts after a long day's foraging across the San Gabriel Valley.

They settle in the boughs of the old sweet gum trees and cypresses and call for mates, their young, their friends. At first there are a dozen, then 60, then 100, and by sunset, there are too many to count. Every tree on the block, and for several blocks, is filled.

Willy the Hog Pairs With Antelope at Zoo

Shortly after his mate went to hog heaven, Willy the Red River porcine spied a new mud-pen pal in what officials are calling one of the oddest pairings at the Los Angeles Zoo.

Willy is a 10-year-old, 187-pound hog and his new mate is a 16-year-old bongo named Nicole, the largest member of the forest antelope family. The couple shares a muddy zoo exhibit where they nap and cuddle together _ even nuzzling snout to nose.

Jurassic "Beaver" Found; Rewrites History of Mammals

It looks a lot like a beaver—hairy body, flat tail, limbs and webbed feet adapted for swimming—but it lived 164 million years ago.

A well-preserved fossil mammal discovered in northeastern China has pushed the history of aquatic mammals back a hundred million years, a new study says.

It is the oldest swimming mammal ever found and the oldest known animal preserved with fur, the researchers say in their report, which will be published the journal Science.

Friday Cat Blog

Here fishie, fishie!



Smoke loves his fishies.

**

Take a look at all the other cute critters at Friday Ark.

On Sunday, there will be lots of other kitties at Carnival of the Cats, this week at My Animal Family.

Video: Dog eat dog

Very funny: Restless leg syndrome?

Waddling with joy!

Down in the penguin enclosure, they are hearing the patter of tiny webbed feet again. And the period of gloom which began with the theft of baby Toga is finally over.

Oscar and Kyala the jackass penguins have another chick to replace Toga, who was taken two months ago from the Amazon World Zoo Park on the Isle of Wight.

Ice worms: They're real, and they're hot

Thriving in conditions that would turn most living things to Popsicles, these inch-long earthworm cousins inhabit glaciers and snowfields in the coastal ranges of Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. They move through seemingly solid ice with ease and are at their liveliest near the freezing point of water. Warm them up slightly and they dissolve into goo.

Their life cycle remains a mystery.

Pig-Shaped Vacuum: Why Not?

Who needs that tired old Dirt Devil when you can have a Crumb Pet. Yes, the Crumb Pet not only picks up your dirt and foodstuffs, but it's shaped like a barnyard animal to boot. Get your bagless, battery-powered portable vacuum in the shape of a pig, cow or sheep for just about $10.

New Fossil Find In New Mexico Named After Artist Georgia O'Keeffe

Two Columbia scientists have discovered the fossil of a toothless crocodile relative that looks like a six-foot-long, two-legged dinosaur, but is actually a distant cousin of today's alligators and crocodiles.

Adjunct professor of earth and environmental sciences Mark Norell and his graduate student Sterling Nesbitt, both of whom also work as paleontologists at the American Museum of Natural History, have named the fossil Effigia okeeffeae.

Strange Fish Washes Ashore in the Cayman Islands

A strange looking sea creature washed up on the shores of Cayman Brac this weekend.

Layman Scott found the fish while walking along the beach early Sunday morning. It is roughly thirty inches long, more than half of which is a long, eel-like tail attached to a fish body. It has pale pink scales, pectoral fins, a dorsal fin and a small feathery fin on its belly.

Local fishermen say they have not seen a creature quite like this before. It has boney bristles all along its spine, right down to the tip of its tail and small sharp teeth, which curve slightly inward.

Elephants Might Seek Revenge

An increasing number of incidents involving African elephants attacking humans is leading some scientists to believe the animals may be seeking revenge.

Although elephant attacks have long been occurring, such attacks were believed the result of the animals being territorial of competing for food, Sky News reported Thursday. But that rationale is being questioned since the elephant population has never been lower in many areas and food has never been so abundant.

Amid frequent reports of herds of elephants destroying African villages without apparent cause, some scientists are speculating elephants might be attacking humans in revenge for years of abuse, giving new meaning to the saying elephants never forget, New Scientist magazine reported.

Pig cells 'may reverse diabetes'

Transplants of insulin-producing cells from pigs could provide a diabetes cure within a decade, scientists say.

A US team has reversed the condition in monkeys by transplanting cell clusters, known as islets, from pig pancreases, a study in Nature Medicine reports.

UK teams have cured type 1 diabetes by transplanting human pancreas cells - but donated organs are in short supply, hence the interest in the pig solution.

Animal Diseases a Threat to Humans

Mutating diseases that originate in the animal world and then infect humans pose a growing health threat to people around the globe, according to scientists.

Researchers have documented 38 illnesses that have made that jump over the past 25 years.

There are 1,407 pathogens -- viruses, bacteria, parasites, protozoa and fungi -- that can infect humans, said Mark Woolhouse of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Of those, 58 percent come from animals. Scientists consider 177 of the pathogens to be "emerging" or "re-emerging." Most will never cause pandemics.

Golden Monkeys Quadruple But Still Endangered

The grey snub-nosed monkey, an endangered species only found in the southwest China's Guizhou Province, has quadrupled to around 800 over the past 20 years, said a local official in charge of protection for the animal.

The monkey, the rarest among the three species of golden monkeys in China's Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Hubei provinces, mainly lives in the Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve in northeast Guizhou.

Spiders of Australia

This site aims to show the common spiders of Australia by means of color photos and some informative text.

These pages contain over 500 pictures with 200 species of spiders that were photographed in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Northern-Territory.
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Video: Sexy Sponge

A porcupine falls in love with a sponge.
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Feathered foe!

Not too long ago, the word `pandemic` was hardly seen outside biology texts. Today, it has become a part of everyday newspaper jargon.

For us, the question is not `if` but `when` we have a human pandemic. Experts say that it will happen in the next year or two.

The H5N1 strain of influenza - often referred to as bird flu - was first known to have jumped from chickens to humans in 1997. Since 2004 it has raged across Asian poultry farms, with a 70% mortality rate in the first 70 people it is known to have infected.

Rare Kiwi Hatched at the National Zoo

National Zoo veterinarians are celebrating a rare event at the Bird House this week.

A North Island brown kiwi -- an endangered bird -- hatched at the zoo on Feb. 13 and was the second kiwi to hatch in the zoo's 116-year history, zoo officials said.

The bird hatched after 64 days of incubation and weighed 9.7 ounces. Zoo veterinarians determined the bird was healthy and placed the chick -- whose gender is not yet known -- into an incubator, where it will remain for the first week.

Tiger poo used as feral animal repellent

Researchers believe they may have struck a "billion dollar market" with a tiger poo extract that keeps feral animals off farms and government-owned land.

The University of Queensland (UQ) has been trialling the use of big cat smells to scare pests away, so far successfully repelling goats from property at Gatton, west of Brisbane.

The repellent's creator, Peter Murray, said the concoction was made of fatty acids and sulphurous compounds extracted from tiger faeces which had been donated by zoos.

Friday Cat Blog

How to Wash the Cat

Thoroughly clean the toilet. Add the required amount of shampoo to the toilet water, and have both lids lifted. Obtain the cat and soothe him while you carry him towards the bathroom.

In one smooth movement, put the cat in the toilet and close both lids (you may need to stand on the lid so that he cannot escape).

CAUTION!!!!!

Do not get any part of your body too close to the edge, as his paws will be reaching out for any purchase they can find.

Flush the toilet three or four times.

Have someone open the door to the outside and ensure that there are no people between the toilet and the outside door.

Stand behind the toilet as far as you can, and quickly lift both lids. The now-clean cat will rocket out of the toilet, and run outside where he will dry himself.

Sincerely,

The DOG

See what other cats and dogs (and some other animals) are up to at the Friday Ark.

On Sunday, there will be other beautiful kitties at Carnival of the Cats, this week at Bloggin Out Loud.

Nudibranchs

The undersea world contains thousands of beautiful creatures and plants. Perhaps the most stunning of all of them is the humble Nudibranch which means ‘naked gill’. There are over 11,000 different kinds of nudibranchs all over the world.
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Video: Polar Bear Cubs' First Lessons

Watch as a mother polar bear teaches her young the vital secrets of hunting, fighting, and even playing.

Jerusalem Zoo's 'gay vultures' return to the closet

Yehuda and Daishik, a pair of male vultures at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo who have been operating as a couple and raised three chicks over the last three years, have split.

Daishik recently shacked up with a new female partner, and, following a visible bout of sadness, Yehuda did as well.

CIA's K-9 Corps

The Central Intelligence Agency established its K-9 Corps January 1991.

Not every dog has what it takes to be in the K-9 Corps and many are rejected. When a dog is selected for duty, he/she goes through 13 weeks of explosives detection training. There are as many as 19,000 explosive scents the dogs learn to detect.

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Owners: Dog treats killed our pets

At least 13 dogs have died after being fed the top-selling pet treat in the country, owners and veterinarians have told CNN.

The problem comes because the treats, called Greenies, become lodged in a dog's esophagus or intestine and then some veterinarians say they don't break down.

"I know they are marketed in saying that they do digest. Certainly the ones that we've taken out, esophageal or intestinal, that have been in for days are still very hard," Brendan McKiernan, a board-certified veterinary internal medicine specialist from Denver, Colorado, told CNN.

Watch a vet retrieve a two-day old, undigested Greenie from a dog -- 7:40

Rufus the Bull Terrier America's Top Dog

Rufus won by a head. A colored bull terrier became America's top dog Tuesday night, winning Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club, thanks to his most prominent feature.

His perfect, egg-shaped noggin.

"The classic profile of a colored bull terrier," judge James Reynolds praised.

Prison Overrun by More Than 100 Cats

Administrators at Avenal State Prison said they will have to kill more than 100 cats that have sneaked in and reproduced inside the facility.

The felines have become a health nuisance for the prison. The state has cited the prison for unsafe working conditions because of cat urine and feces.

Prison officials said they do not know how the animals got in.

Video: Birds

Who knew dogs could fly?

Stinging Caterpillars

Most people know that bees, wasps, hornets and some ants can sting to defend themselves or their nests. Only a few people realize, usually from first hand experience, that handling some caterpillars can produce some painful results. Recognizing the few stinging caterpillar species may prevent irritating encounters.

Japanese feeding whale meat to dogs

Japan's stock of whale meat from hunting for scientific research is so large that the country has begun selling it as dog food, a leading marine conservation organisation said on Friday.

Japan abandoned commercial whaling in 1986, in line with an international moratorium, but began catching whales again the following year for what it calls scientific research.

The WDCS said Japan's stockpile of whale meat stood at 4,800 tonnes last year compared with 673 tonnes in March 1998, and that this year it had doubled its hunt of minke whales as well as adding humpback and fin whales to the tally.

Video: Leroy

Leroy knows over 35 tricks. His most impressive is to set the dinner table with dinner, drinks and dessert from his own kitchette. Then he turns a lamp on, plays a piano for his audience and at the end of the show turns the lamp off.

Shark Frenzy Closes Australian Beaches

Several tourist beaches along Australia's popular Gold Coast were closed again Sunday because of a massive feeding frenzy involving more than 100 sharks, a lifeguard official said.

Several beaches in Queensland state were closed for the second straight day after more than 100 hammerhead, gray nurse and whaler sharks were spotted feeding close to shore, said Sue Neil, spokeswoman for Surf Lifesaving Queensland.

Centipede Sting Nearly Kills Florida Man

A South Florida man nearly died this weekend after being stung by a rare Vietnamese centipede considered to have one of the most toxic stings in the world.

Authorities said the man was changing the water bowl of the 7-inch Vietnamese centipede he was keeping as a pet when it quickly stung his hand.

Sri Lanka swaps baby elephants for rhinos from Japan

Sri Lanka will give two baby elephants to a Japanese zoo in exchange for a pair of rhinos, the government said.

The jumbos from the island's elephant orphanage at the central village of Pinnawela will be sent to the Nagoya Higashiyama zoo in Japan, government spokesman Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said.

Shanghai zoo selling tiger bone wine

The Shanghai zoo, located in China's economic capital, is storing the bones of dead tigers in distilled spirits and selling the resulting tonic as a health supplement, state press said.

The zoo, which keeps up to a dozen tigers, has linked up with an alcohol producer to make the tiger bone elixir, which purportedly can help sufferers of arthritis and rheumatism, the Beijing News said Friday.

Runway dogs delay landings

Two passenger planes of Macedonia's national carrier MAT were stacked above Skopje airport until a pack of stray dogs could be cleared from the runway to let them land safely, officials said Thursday.

A flight from Vienna and another from Zurich were ordered to circle the airfield Wednesday after security noticed the dogs "playing around" on the airfield's only runway.

Huge Chinese crabs threaten fish

An exotic Chinese crab which can grow to the size of a dinner plate is making its way into Britain's rivers.

Studies show that the mitten crab can threaten local marine life like crayfish and salmon, and even damage riverbanks by burrowing into them.

They've swept through European waters in the past 100 years, after being brought over in ships, and have now been spotted in the UK.

Yellow-Legged Frog Faces Extinction

The mountain yellow-legged frog has survived for thousands of years in lakes and streams carved by glaciers, living up to nine months under snow and ice and then emerging to issue its raspy chorus across the Sierra Nevada range.

But the frog's call is going silent as a mysterious fungus pushes it toward extinction.

"It's very dramatic," said Yosemite biologist Lara Rachowicz. "One year, you visit a lake and the population will seem fine. The next year you go back, you see a lot of dead frogs scattered along the bottom of the pond. In a couple years the population is gone."

Horse Slaughter Continues in U.S., Despite Recent Law

Three foreign-owned processing plants will be allowed to continue slaughtering horses for meat, the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced.

The slaughterhouses—two in Texas and one in Illinois—kill a combined total of 70,000 to 90,000 horses each year and sell the meat overseas as a delicacy and in the U.S. as food for zoo animals.

Fewer whales arrive in Mexican lagoons

The number of grey whales making a yearly migration from the icy North Pacific to breed in Mexico's warm lagoons has dropped this year, scientists say, possibly because of changing weather patterns.

Gray whale researcher William Megill said food shortages in the whales' feeding grounds near Canada and Alaska mean that some of the thousands who make the annual 80 47km journey have departed late or even stayed behind this year.

Other researchers said on Thursday that varying sea temperatures in the Bering Sea could be contributing to changes in migration patterns.

And the nation's Top Dog is ...

According to figures recently released by the American Kennel Club, the sweetly slobbering Labrador retriever remains America's top dog for the 16th consecutive year, and the golden retriever hangs in at No. 2. However, the yippy Yorkshire terrier unexpectedly nips at their hind paws in the No. 3 spot--its highest national ranking since it entered the AKC in 1885--having made kibble out of the German shepherd and the beagle. The Yorkie well could snatch the top slot next year, according to Lainie Cantrell, director of public relations at the AKC.

Friday Cat Blog

The Queen



Grace, as the only female cat of the household, really is a queen. She lords and rules over all of us. She's dainty, finicky and very sensitive. She's the one who decides when it's petting time or cuddle time or "leave me alone or I'll snarl at you" time.

Oh, did I mention that she's also very beautiful?

See other beautiful animals at the Friday Ark.

On Sunday, there will be other beautiful kitties at Carnival of the Cats, this week at Watermark.

Undercover kitty helps nab bogus vet

Fred, the undercover cat, made his own collar!

The 8-month-old domestic shorthair was used by the Brooklyn district attorney's office to nab a man charged with being a fake veterinarian, officials said Wednesday.

Arrested and indicted on charges of posing as an licensed vet last Friday was Steven Vassall, 28, of Brooklyn. Vassall, who investigators said was a student at Kingsborough Community College, may have been doing medical procedures on animals for as long as seven years, said Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes.

Video: Talking dogs

We all knew dogs could talk - here's proof!

Monster Bunny!

Meet the bunny monster! This three-year-old rabbit, named German Giant after his breed, weighs in at 22lbs, is 3ft 1in long — and his ears measure nearly 12 ins.

Owner Hans Wagner, of Berlin, said: “He makes a sound like thunder when he thumps along but mostly just wants to sleep.

“He’s as big as a five-year-old child and unlike many rabbits is really friendly. His favourite food is lettuce.”

Feathered Fotos

Feathered Fotos was created in 2002 by Garth McElroy in order to have a medium for exhibiting his distinctive and striking avian images. All these images were photographed by Garth in a natural setting and each one depicts wild birds displaying natural behaviors.
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Nine Cats

Nine Cats, Acrylic on Canvas, by Bruce Andrew Mckay


Bigcatheads by BAM
Webgallery showcasing the artwork of Bruce Andrew Mckay a.k.a. BAM.

Bed-bug epidemic in Australia

Australia is suffering a bed-bug epidemic with the tourism industry losing an estimated $75 million a year because of the blood-sucking insects, according to a new entomology study.

Some pest controllers have reported more than a 1,000 percent rise in bed-bug outbreaks.

The Australian outbreaks are part of a global epidemic, with the number of bed bugs worldwide doubling each year.

Noisy Dachshund Saves Woman From Fire

Moo Moo the wiener dog has helped save its owner from a hot situation.

The little dachshund kicked up a big ruckus as smoke filled a home in Upper Marlboro, outside of Washington, D.C.

'Lost world' discovered in isolated Indonesian jungle