Video: Sleepy Baby Sloth

When it comes to tired baby animals, the sloth is king.
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The Bad Foods For Dogs List

This page is a list of common foods that are bad or poisonous for your dog. If you suspect that your dog might have eaten any food that might be toxic, contact his/her vet immediately.

Rare white lions on public view

The first white lion cubs to be born at a UK safari park are going on public view in the West Midlands.

The cubs, three females and one male called Kiara, Lara, Toto and Casper, were born in August last year.

They were bred at the West Midland Safari Park near Bewdley, Worcs, to mother Maryn who was brought to the park in 2004 with three others.

White lions are a rare species found in an area of South Africa. There are thought to be 130 left in the world.
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Fear-mongering about wolves not based in science

Despite generations of us raised on "Little Red Riding Hood," wolves are fascinating animals that almost never attack humans. Yes, they'll follow you at a distance across a frozen lake. They'll kill and eat domestic livestock. They'll kill pets and the loose-running dogs of Wisconsin bear hunters.

It's not inconceivable that a healthy, wild wolf would attack a human being. But the few documented cases of attacks on humans nearly always involved either rabid wolves or those habituated to human contact at campgrounds or garbage dumps. In Minnesota, wolves have had hundreds - probably thousands - of chances to attack humans and have not done so.

The only case in Minnesota even resembling a wolf attack occurred many years ago. A man hunting rabbits, wearing a coat well-anointed with buck scent from deer season, was jumped from behind by a wolf. The man fired a shot from his .22-caliber rifle.

"The wolf appeared to come to its senses and fled, leaving the hunter with a long scratch," wrote Minnesota wolf researcher L. David Mech.

Juneau predator catches and releases pet pug

A lone, black wolf that Juneau residents have dubbed "Romeo" appears to have lost its fear of humans, prompting officials to set up signs reminding people to keep their distance from the wild animal.

The wolf has been spotted on several occasions attempting to "play" with dogs and people on and around frozen Mendenhall Lake, one of his haunts, the Juneau Empire reported.

Recent pictures circulating locally by e-mail show Romeo getting acquainted with a few local dogs, including a small, light-colored pug.

In one shot, he's making off with the pug as if it were a rabbit. Subsequent photos show the pug squirming on the ice after he's been released. The little dog suffered no apparent harm.
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Wallaby Captured In SoCal Back Home In Oroville

It was the Wallaby capture seen around the world.

Last week, television helicopter crews hovered as animal control officers in Southern California cornered what looked like a kangaroo in someone's backyard.

Turns out, it's a wallaby and the lost little guy lives in Oroville.

Walter the wallaby is the pet of Oroville resident Banti Baker. "He's the love of my life" Banti told CBS13.

She's been raising wallabies them for 25 years.. But Walter escaped when Baker left him with a friend in Southern California.

And that's when Walter became worldwide news as television crews covered his capture and aired the 911 tapes from worried residents.

Stowaway squirrel grounds jet

An American Airlines flight made an unscheduled landing after pilots heard something skittering about in the wire-laden space over the cockpit.

The airline blamed the emergency landing of the Tokyo-Dallas flight with 202 passengers on a stowaway squirrel.

"You do not want a varmint up in the wiring areas and what-have-you on an airplane. You don't want anything up there," said John Hotard, spokesman for the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline.

He said pilots feared the animal would chew through wiring or cause other problems.

"So, as a precaution, we diverted," Hotard said.

Once on the ground late Friday, the Boeing 777's human passengers were put up in hotel rooms and later rebooked on other flights.

State and federal agriculture and wildlife officials boarded the plane, set traps and captured the eastern gray squirrel.

Red Panda, Ailurus fulgens

The Red Panda, Ailurus fulgens, also known as the Lesser Panda, Bear Cat or Fire Fox, is a mostly herbivorous mammal, slightly larger than a domestic cat.
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Zoos Offer Romantic Sex Tours For Couples

Valentine's Day is the time of year when zoos around the nation seek to woo a new adult audience with risque tours that couple champagne, chocolate-covered strawberries and candlelight dining with impressive facts about how animals do the wild thing.

Credit for the concept goes to Jane Tollini, a former penguin keeper at the San Francisco Zoo. Tollini conceived the idea two decades ago while watching her penguins' courtship ritual, which culminates in what she describes as "bowling pins making love."

"The keepers get there early and we see things that other people don't see," Tollini said. "And I went, 'My God, that's fascinating.' You know the old Peter Sellers line, 'I like to watch?' You kind of go, 'Oh my, my, my. How big? How many? How far?' It was unbelievable."

English springer spaniel is America's top dog

An English springer spaniel with a preference for chicken-and-garlic treats prevented America's top dog event from turning into The Cosby Show.

Diamond Jim jumped into handler Kellie Fitzgerald's arms after being picked for best in show Tuesday night at the Westminster Kennel Club.

Dressed in a glittering copper top that perfectly matched her brown-and-white dog, Fitzgerald cuddled her 6-year-old certified therapy dog.

Diamond Jim beat out a Dandie Dinmont terrier co-owned by Bill Cosby, as he did at the big AKC/Eukanuba event in December. The springer was the nation's No. 2 show dog last year behind Cosby's entry – Fitzgerald also repeated, having gone best in show at Westminster in 2000.

Dancing Jellyfish

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Humane Solutions to Urban Wildlife Conflicts...

Whether you've found a bird with a broken wing, an orphaned baby squirrel, or have a wild animal taking up residence in your attic, we can help. Click on the links below for help with your situation.

• Click here if you have found an orphaned animal. Here you will find information to help you determine whether or not the animal you have found is really an orphan, and a listing of wildlife rehabilitators in your area if the animal is indeed in need of assitance.

• Click here if you have found an injured animal. Here you will find information on how to contain an injured wild animal, if it is safe to do so, as well as a full listing of wildlife rehabilitors in your area.

• Click here if you are experiencing a problem with a wild animal at your home or on your property. You will find detailed information on how to permanently and humanely resolve common urban wildlfe conflicts.

funny photos of dogs chewing up the house

Is your dog chewing up the house? You're not alone!

more ...
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California skunk leaves Canada after a long, strange trip to 'Oz'

A California skunk nicknamed Dorothy that hitched a ride aboard a commercial truck to Canada in late December is finally going home after a fantastic whirlwind tour, wildlife officials said.

The four-pound (1.8-kilogram) female had traveled nearly 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) in five days without food or water in a sealed container, arriving in Canada slightly dehydrated but otherwise unharmed.

Canadian wildlife authorities believe it fell asleep in a large rubber pipe that was loaded onto the big rig in Torrance, Calif., in late December.

The animal was dubbed Dorothy after Judy Garland's character in the 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz" because it too "fell asleep and woke up in a strange land."

Civil War or Civility: How to Live with Urban Coyotes

If there is a born survivor among the mammals, it must be the coyote. This animal, after all, has thrived and expanded his range despite decades of devoted and remarkably wasteful federal efforts to eradicate him from the west. Once largely restricted to the open rural prairies, the coyote now exists in every state except Hawaii, and has even learned to coexist with humans in ever-expanding cities and towns.

Some people welcome this so-called invasion about as much as Atlanta welcomed Sherman, while others celebrate the ability of coyotes to survive in a hostile environment filled with buildings, fences, concrete, and cars. Community meetings—held when coyotes are observed in a neighborhood or a few cats mysteriously disappear— are usually divided into coyote lovers and coyote haters. Each side is fierce in its conviction that the coyotes must stay or go, although most of the time no one has accurate data on coyote behavior and myths are reported as fact.

Mutts are the new top dogs

Growing numbers of dog lovers are rejecting the pursuit of pedigrees to embrace instead what can only be called mongrels or mutts.

Short-haired or long, tiny or tall, mixed-breed dogs of uncertain background are enjoying unprecedented popularity.

"It's more fashionable to have a standard, old-fashioned mutt," says Michael Mountain of Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah, the USA's largest animal shelter. "The 'in' thing is not to have a very well-bred, very expensive dog."

Fashion maven Isaac Mizrahi, smitten owner of Harry, a probable golden retriever/border collie mix adopted from a New York shelter in 2000, says: "Mutts are like real couture. There are no two alike."

Well-heeled folks who 10 years ago would have strolled the streets with nothing less than a perfect, silky Afghan hound or Yorkshire terrier are proudly parading their dogs of indeterminate heritage about. Animal shelters report that mongrels are often adopted as quickly as purebreds these days.

Knoxville Zoo says they have hatched a spider tortoise

The Knoxville Zoo says it has become the first U.S. zoo to successfully breed Northern spider tortoises, a subspecies so rare they can no longer be exported from their native Madagascar off Africa's southeastern coast.

The first young tortoise hatched Dec. 23, and at 18 grams and an inch long is thriving. A second hatched Friday and five more eggs were in incubation.

They are the result of a courtship between a male acquired in 2004 and two females obtained in 1999 and 2005. There are only 12 adult males and 11 adult females in captivity in the United States at four zoos.
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Deer in the news

Doctor collides with a whitetail deer while skiing
A doctor ran into a deer while skiing in Maine during the month of January.

Iowa wildlife experts consider deer contraceptive
Iowa wildlife experts are looking into a new deer contraceptive that could curb the state's multimillion-dollar-a-year overpopulation.

Minesotta deer harvest second highest on record
Minnesota hunters harvested nearly 270,000 deer during 2006, the second highest deer harvest ever recorded, according to a final numbers announced by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Police seek men who beat deer to death
Police and conservation officers are looking for information about a sickening crime where two men beat a young, pregnant deer to death in the driveway of a Lakeview [Canada] home.

8-year-old hunter finds oddity in first deer of career
For Alex Lieb, 8, and his father Nick, a rarity showed up within the range of a crossbow. The four-pointer's antlers were covered in velvet. It was a female.

Deer jumps through a window into home
A deer bounded through a parlor window, hurdling a sofa and scrambling through the home before being wrestled into a bathroom and locked in.

And the bride and groom were smelly pigs

The bride was a real smelly porker and she wore pink.

Two Musk hogs were married in a lavish ceremony in Taiwan, with the blessings of a Catholic priest.

The bride and groom -- Huang Pu-pu and Shu Fu-ko -- wore tailor-made outfits for the nuptials that included wedding cake, portrait photographs, a marriage certificate and were sealed with a kiss.

Keeping these odorous pigs as pets has become all the rage in Taiwan as the country prepares to ring in the new lunar year, which has been dubbed the "Year of the Pig."

(photo credit)

Video: A baby penguin learning to walk

They start off by walking on their parent's feet.
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Crash victim says dog saved her life

A south Georgia woman bloodied in a car wreck says she owes her life to a German shepherd who – thankfully – just wouldn't stay in his yard.

Shannon Lorio says that after her car careened down an embankment, the wayward dog found her bruised and battered on the vehicle's trunk, pulled her by her shirt collar, dragged her about 50 yards through briars to a highway and let her lean against him so she could flag a passing motorist.

His new name: Hero.

''That dog is always going to have a special place in my heart,'' Lorio said Friday. ''He's my hero.''

Hero's previous owners have signed him over to the Thomasville-Thomas County Humane Society since the Jan. 26 accident because he kept wandering off.

He won't be in the shelter long: Not only have at least 50 people offered to adopt him, a dog trainer has agreed to see if he has the right stuff for search and rescue work.

Over 100 fossilised dinosaur eggs found in India

In a remarkable feat, three amateur explorers have stumbled upon more than 100 fossilised eggs of dinosaurs in Madhya Pradesh. The eggs, belonging to the Cretaceous Era (approximately 144 to 65 million years ago), have been discovered in Kukshi-Bagh area of Dhar district, some 150 kms south-west of Indore.

The rare find is a significant step in the study of the pre-historic life in Narmada Valley.

"All the eggs were discovered from a single nesting site in a start to end exploration for 18 hours at the site in Kukshi-Bagh area, 40 kms from Manavar. As many as 6-8 eggs were found per nests," an excited Vishal Verma of the Mangal Panchayatan Parishad, a group of amateur explorers, told Hindustan Times from near the site.

Faith the Dog

Faith is an incredible dog. She was born just before Christmas in 2002, and we were lucky enough to have her in our family just 3 short weeks later. She was born to a mother dog, believed to be nearly full blooded chow, along with several other siblings. Faith wasn't the only puppy born with deformities, but because "Princess", her mother, was not our dog, we are not sure of the exact number of puppies she gave birth to. It is certain, however, that Faith was the only puppy with deformities to live.

Video: Japan has baby animal boom

Newborn animals mesmerise visitors at a Tokyo zoo.

An unexpected "baby boom" at a Tokyo zoo attracts hoards of visitors, who have come to see the newborn koala, monkey, chimpanzee, giraffe, tiger and orangutan.

Leather Dog Sofa

This grand Leather Dog Sofa gives your four-legged friend the ultimate in sophisticated luxury. Now you won't have to share your sofa with your big collie or lab — here's his own deluxe version.

• Crafted of heavy-duty furniture-grade construction
• Sits on elegant hardwood feet
• Upholstered in rich chocolate brown leather
• Cushioned seat interior removes for washing

Large size = $699.00

Velour Sweatsuit for Dogs

Dress your posh pooch in trendsetting J.Lo + Madonna style with our fabulous Velour Sweatsuit.

Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2007

Enter the competition

The search for the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2007 has began. All the information about the 2007 competition can be found here.

Closing date

Friday 30 March 2007 for online submission. Friday 23 March for postal submission.

New for 2007

£10,000 prize for the overall winner - Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
New categories, One Earth Award and Wild Choice.

2006 Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year - Overall Winner

Building a Stairway to Paradise, for Your Beloved Pet

The sky can be the limit when it comes to options for owners who want to give pets a proper send-off. There are more than 1,000 pet cemeteries across the United States, and many provide most everything from funeral services and customized burial sites to cremations and bereavement counseling. They also offer an array of items like urns, coffins, vaults and grave markers.

“We’ve always had strong affection for our pets, but in the past five to seven years marketers have really picked up on this,” said David Lummis, lead pet market analyst at Packaged Facts, a market research publisher based in New York. “They’ve taken the ball and run with it. What we’re seeing now — in all these humanized products, many of which have premium prices — is the sanctioning of treating pets like family.”

In 2005, revenue in the pet care service industry reached $18.2 billion (of which $13.2 billion was for veterinarian services alone) and is predicted to reach $25.3 billion by 2010, according to a report by Mr. Lummis.

Talking Fish: Wide Variety of Sounds Discovered

Increasingly scientists are discovering unusual mechanisms by which fish make and hear secret whispers, grunts and thumps to attract mates and ward off the enemy.

In just one bizarre instance, seahorses create clicks by tossing their heads. They snap the rear edge of their skulls against their star-shaped bony crests.

This and other discoveries made in recent years come as the focus on the sounds that fish make is growing beyond "really loud sounds that last a long time," fish behaviorist Timothy Tricas at the University of Hawaii at Manoa told LiveScience. "Seahorse clicks are brief, only about five to 20 milliseconds," he said.

Firefighters' latest gear: pet oxygen masks

Fire helmet? Check. Gloves? Check. Axe? Check. Pet oxygen masks? Check.

Increasingly, little oxygen masks for pets are becoming standard equipment for firefighters. Hoping to save cats, dogs and other pets caught in house fires, animal advocacy groups and pet-products suppliers are equipping departments all over the country with them.

The cone-shaped plastic masks, which come in three sizes and fit snugly on snouts, can resuscitate animals suffering from smoke inhalation. They can be used on dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs, even birds.

"In the past, we used regular air masks like the firefighters use. In a pinch, it works," said Norman Flanders, fire chief in this small Vermont town, which was given a set of pet masks by a local animal welfare group Tuesday. "But these masks are designed specifically to fit over the muzzle of a cat or a dog."

Penguin a living 'piggy bank'

A Humboldt penguin at the Denver Zoo was getting ready to be shipped to another zoo, but the transfer was held up when veterinarians found coins in the bird's stomach.

Zoo officials said well-wishers toss coins into the penguin pond for good luck, but it's bad luck for the birds that can't differentiate a shiny coin from a shiny scaled fish and ingest them, causing stomach problems.

The adult female Humboldt, who was undergoing a wellness exam, had a blood test that indicated she had a dangerously high level of zinc in her system. Veterinarians had to remove the coins using an endoscope with a small net attached to ''scoop'' the coins from the bird's stomach.

Veterinarians successfully recovered 71 cents and pieces of a partially digested penny from the penguin's stomach. They said despite the inherent risks of any procedure involving anesthesia, the bird recovered fully and the levels of zinc in her blood have dropped back to normal.
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Pit bull found starving on Thanksgiving is now ready to be adopted

Tampa, Florida - Hillsborough County Animal Services says they have nursed a pit bull back to health and he is ready to be adopted.

Workers say they discovered the dog moments from death in the back yard of a Cherry Street home on Thanksgiving day. They have named him Pilgrim.

Officials say the dog was chained to the backyard fence and had not had food or water for several weeks.

Animal Abuse Investigator Corporal Angela Snyder was on holiday duty when Tampa Police called about the "skin and bones tied out back on Cherry Street." She arrived on scene and observed a dog-tethered, lateral, and motionless. Snyder contemplated arrangements to remove the lifeless body, but as she moved in closer, so did the dog's tail.

She rushed the dog to Hillsborough County Animal Services.

More Polar Bears Giving Birth on Land

Pregnant polar bears in Alaska, which spend most of their lives on sea ice, are increasingly giving birth on land, according to researchers who say global warming is probably to blame.

The study by three scientists for the U.S. Geological Survey suggests the state's bear population could be harmed if the climate continues to grow warmer. Though bears are powerful swimmers, at some point they might have to cross vast stretches of open water to reach habitat on shore suitable for building dens in which to give birth.

From 1985 to 1994, 62 percent of the female polar bears studied dug dens in snow on sea ice. From 1998 to 2004, just 37 percent made dens on ice. The rest dug snow dens on land, according to the study.

What has been happening to polar bears in recent decades?

Polar bears have long captured the attention of the general public but probably at no time in the past have they been more in the forefront of the public's imagination than today. Today's heightened interest in polar bears may be due in part to an enhanced understanding of the ecology of polar bears, their environment, and an increased interest in Arctic issues brought on by concerns for climate change.

Sea Lion Found in Cow Barn

A 200-pound sea lion is headed back to the wild after winding up inside a cow barn in the small Delta town of Banta [CA], near Tracy yesterday.

Kisst Dairy was the temporary home of the animal, dubbed Happy by the man who found him. John Kisst discovered the sea lion during his weekly vet check of his milk cows.

"He scuttled through the field apparently and into what we call a free stall barn, which is where our milk cows are housed. He came into the barn, found himself a free stall or a bed where the cows lay down and Happy decided to sit there," said Kisst.

He said Happy seemed fine, describing the animal at attentive and calm. "The cows were curious, and some of them would put their nose up close to him, but not want to get too close to him. The sea lion kind of just looked at them and didn't bother them so the cows didn't bother him."

Boy's screaming kills chickens?

Hundreds of chickens have been found dead in east China -- and a court has ruled that the cause of death was the screaming of a four-year-old boy who in turn had been scared by a barking dog, state media reported on Wednesday.

The bizarre sequence events began when the boy arrived at a village home in the eastern province of Jiangsu in the summer with his father who was delivering bottles of gas, the Nanjing Morning Post reported.

A villager was quoted as saying the little boy bent over the henhouse window, screaming for a long time, after being scared by the dog.

"One neighbor told police that he had heard the boy's crying that afternoon and another villager confirmed the boy screaming by the henhouse window," the newspaper said.

A court ruled the boy's screaming was "the only unexpected abnormal sound" and that 443 chickens trampled each other to death in fear.
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Giant lions and kangaroos once roamed Australia

Marsupial lions, kangaroos as tall as trucks and wombats the size of a rhinoceros roamed Australia's outback before being killed off by fires lit by arriving humans, scientists said on Thursday.

The giant animals lived in the arid Nullarbor Desert around 400,000 years ago, but died out around 50,000 years ago, relatively shortly after the arrival of human settlers, according to new fossil skeletons found in caves.

Fossilised remains were uncovered almost intact in a series of three deep caves in the centre of the Nullarbor desert -- east of the west coast city of Perth -- in October 2002. "Three subsequent expeditions produced hundreds of fossils so well-preserved that they constitute a veritable "Rosetta Stone for Ice-Age Australia", expedition leader Gavin Prideaux said of the find, detailed in the latest edition of the journal Nature.

The team discovered 69 species of mammals, birds and reptiles, including eight new species of kangaroo, some standing up to 3 metres (9 feet) tall.

Protected from wind and rain, and undisturbed due to their remote location, the remains of the mega-beasts are in near-perfect condition, including the first-ever complete skeleton of a marsupial lion, Thylacoleo carnifex.

Virgin Komodo Dragon Gives Birth

A British zoo on Wednesday announced the virgin birth of five Komodo dragons, giving scientists new hope for the captive breeding of the endangered species.

In an evolutionary twist, the newborns' 8-year-old mother, Flora, shocked staff at Chester Zoo in northern England when she became pregnant without ever having a male partner or even being exposed to the opposite sex.

"Flora is oblivious to the excitement she has caused but we are delighted to say she is now a mum and dad," said a delighted Kevin Buley, the zoo's curator of lower vertebrates and invertebrates.

"When the first of the babies hatched, we didn't know whether to make her a cup of tea or pass her the cigars."

World's first rhino conceived by artificial insemination is born

The world's first rhino conceived by artificial insemination has been born at Budapest Zoo, officials said in a statement on Wednesday.

The female baby rhino, born at 5:55 p.m. on Tuesday, weighed in at 128 lbs. "The little one seemed active and vital. An hour after being born it stood up on its own legs," the statement said.

The baby rhino has yet to be named, said zoo spokesman Zoltan Hanga, who added the zoo hoped to find a sponsor for her.

The mother, 26-year-old Lulu, had failed to conceive naturally, even when put with a male rhino named Easyboy. A group of international veterinarians from Germany, Austria and Hungary started in-vitro fertilization and she finally became pregnant in 2005.

Scientists Can't Get Sloth to Move

Scientists in the eastern German city of Jena said Wednesday they have finally given up after three years of failed attempts to entice a sloth into budging as part of an experiment in animal movement.

The sloth, named Mats, was remanded to a zoo after consistently refusing to climb up and then back down a pole, as part of an experiment conducted by scientists at the University of Jena's Institute of Systematic Zoology and Evolutionary Biology.

Neither pounds of cucumbers nor plates of homemade spaghetti were appetizing enough to make Mats move.

"Mats obviously wanted absolutely nothing to do with furthering science," said Axel Burchardt, a university spokesman.

Mats' new home is the zoo in the northwestern city of Duisburg where, according to all reports, he is very comfortable.

Life in the Doghouse is not so bad

The $80,000 home for Rose (below) and five other chow chows is informally called called the Chow Mahal. The 900-square-foot guesthouse built by Charlene and Johnny Grayson of Blossom Valley holds individual kennels with doggy doors that lead to grassy, fenced runs; countless chow knickknacks cover the shelves and walls. "I know it's a little extreme," she said.

Charlene and Johnny Grayson really love their chow chows.

The couple even built them their own place. And it's no doghouse.

The 900-square-foot doggy domicile is done up in earth tones and animal prints. Images of the lion-faced dog gaze out from walls, drink coasters and magazines. A flat-screen TV is tuned to Animal Planet.

The $80,000 house, adjacent to the Graysons' hilltop home east of Lakeside, was christened the Chow Mahal years ago by one of their incredulous friends.

Fluffy cat is a refugee from Mideast violence

It’s hard to think of Stone as a war casualty.

Yet only a few months ago Stone, who is deaf and sports one blue eye and one green eye, was left homeless when his shelter was bombed in Beirut, Lebanon.

Stone and other cats were part of an unprecedented airlift of almost 300 animals left abandoned or wounded in war-torn Beirut. The animals were flown to the Best Friends’ 1,200-acre sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. From ther