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.
(via)

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.
(via)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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."

Blue Jellyfish Invade Australia Beaches

It's summer down under, and at many Australian beaches the sands have turned as blue as the water.

Huge armadas of toxic bluebottle jellyfish are swamping Australia's east coast in record numbers, putting the sting on peak beach season.

More than 30,000 people were stung by the translucent blue jellies on this coast last year—more than twice the number of incidents in 2005—according to Australia's lifeguard group, Surf Life Saving (SLS).

And in a single weekend earlier this month, beachgoers reported more than 1,200 stings, several requiring hospitalization.

The recent influx is the result of a wind shift that has pushed flotillas of the invertebrates ashore, scientists say. But the overall trend suggests that the 6-inch-long (15-centimeter-long) jellyfish are growing in number due to warming ocean waters.

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.

It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's...A Moose?

It was a rough day to be a moose.

Several were stalked by helicopter, captured with a net, blindfolded and then airlifted to trailers for a six-hour drive.

The moose woke up in Utah on Friday but were going to sleep in Colorado.

The strategy helps Utah cure a moose overpopulation while raising the number in Colorado. In return, Utah will get big horn sheep.

“I equate this to alien abduction. It's got to be that traumatic,” said Dean Riggs, area wildlife manager with the Colorado Wildlife Division.

Idaho Governor Calls for Gray Wolf Kill

Idaho's governor said Thursday he will support public hunts to kill all but 100 of the state's gray wolves after the federal government strips them of protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter told The Associated Press that he wants hunters to kill about 550 gray wolves. That would leave about 100 wolves, or 10 packs, according to a population estimate by state wildlife officials.

The 100 surviving wolves would be the minimum before the animals could again be considered endangered.

"I'm prepared to bid for that first ticket to shoot a wolf myself," Otter said earlier Thursday during a rally of about 300 hunters.

Otter complained that wolves are rapidly killing elk and other animals essential to Idaho's multimillion-dollar hunting industry. The hunters, many wearing camouflage clothing and blaze-orange caps, applauded wildly during his comments.

Rare turtle found in Thailand

Thai villagers have caught a river terrapin turtle that was thought to be extinct in the country, a leading conservation group said Wednesday.

The female turtle - known for its egg-shaped shell and upturned snout - was found Jan. 3 in a mangrove canal in Phang Nga province on the country's Andaman Coast, said the World Wide Fund for Nature, Thailand. It was the first time the species was found in Thailand in two decades, the WWF said.

"The discovery of a species that was believed to be extinct in Thailand is considered to be a very important event, and it shows that the natural habitat in which it was found is still rich and should be conserved," said WWF official Songpol Tippayawong.

photo credit: Asian Turtle Conservation Network