animalphiles

Panda porn helps produce baby boom

Pandas are notorious for their reticence towards romance. Folks at the Wolong Panda Reserve in China have found panda "porn" helps. We're talking panda sex on video and live! live! live!

Females are only ready to mate three days of the year, so biologists are willing to do anything that helps. The males respond well to the sights (and sounds) of other couples getting it on. Enough so that there's been a bit of a baby boom in the past year. See the full report by CNN's John Vause.

Hawks find home at Brooklyn zoo

It's a tragic story with a happy ending. The lives of red-tailed hawks Manipi and Seneca were in peril when they were found abandoned and injured in two separate parts of New York state. Seneca, a female, was found upstate suffering from an eye injury, while Manipi, a male, fell from a nest in Prospect Park, only to survive with a bad mouth infection. When the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) heard about these two tragedies, the organization stepped in to offer the birds a new home at the WCS's Prospect Park Zoo.

Now, these two magnificent raptors are on exhibit on the Zoo's Discovery Trail. Though their injuries would make it impossible for the birds to survive in the wild, the two red-tails are quite active and can often be seen soaring to the tops of trees in their exhibit, overlooking the surrounds of their new digs.

Red-tailed hawks, native to North America, are the largest of the hawk species, usually weighing between two and four pounds. As with most raptors, the female is nearly 1/3 larger than the male and has a wing span of 56 inches. Wild red tails have even been known to nest and raise their young in Brooklyn's own Prospect Park.
photo: Barbara Russo/WCS

Huge brood dodges traffic, wins fans

A mother mallard duck is raising an enormous brood of 29 ducklings in Hertfordshire, England.

Traffic is one of the greatest hazards for this large family. The ducks regularly cross a busy highway. Truckers often pause to let them cross the road.

Getting 30 ducks safely across is a slow process. But workers at a nearby office joke that the birds move faster when they pass the Kentucky Fried Chicken. The staffers make a habit of leaving bread out for the ducks.

At one point mama duck was looking after 40 babies. That would be a record-setting number of ducklings for a single clutch. But experts believe that's not the case. They think this mother could be looking after the offspring of another female that was killed on the road.

PETA wants AP to rewrite its stance on animals

PETA is asking the style guru at Associated Press to change how reporters and editors refer to animals. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Norm Goldstein, editor of The Associated Press Stylebook, suggesting that it is time to revise guidelines—which currently characterize animals as inanimate objects—and bring the references in line with 21st century attitudes. Specifically, PETA points out that using "it" and "which" instead of the personal pronouns "he," "she," and "who" in reference to animals is inaccurate and outdated—particularly in a society that is increasingly recognizing that animals have inherent rights, legal standing, and individuality.

The letter reads, in part:   

"In magazine articles, popular literature, and advertising, writers are using 'he,' 'she,' and 'who' to refer to animals—instead of the outdated and inaccurate 'it' and 'which.' Won’t you consider making this transition as well?

As 'the essential global news network,' the Associated Press (AP) should take a progressive step and give animals the respect that they deserve by revising AP style guidelines to reflect the usage of personal pronouns for all animals.

While the world accelerates through the 21st century, progressive ideas are challenging and changing conventional perspectives. Recently, the American legal system recognized that nonhuman animals deserve legal status beyond that of mere "property" and that abusive treatment of animals is more than simple vandalism.

The public now recognizes that whales, who sing across oceans; great apes, who share more than 98 percent of our DNA; sheep, who can recognize as many as 50 faces after not having seen them for two years; and pigs and chickens, who can learn to operate switches in order to control heat and light in factory-farm sheds, are feeling, intelligent individuals—not objects. Our language should reflect this."

Springtime means babies!!!

There's a baby boom going on at the World Wildlife Zoo in Phoenix, with the arrival of a baby ring-tailed lemur, a capuchin monkey, a litter of warthogs and a pair of red-legged seriema chicks.

Warthogs have been hugely popular with zoo visitors since the Disney film, The Lion King. In the coming weeks, the small piglets will venture out from their underground dens under the watchful eye of their parents. The species is named for the large fleshy growths that develop along the sides of their face as they mature.  Adult males used these “warts” as a natural cushion during sparring matches with other males during breeding season.

Lemurs are a primitive form of primate and all species come from the island of Madagascar.  The island’s eventual isolation from the continent of Africa lead to the development of unusual animals not found anywhere else in the world.  Unfortunately, many of its species, including lemurs, are threatened with extinction due to human activities.

The other new arrivals come from South America.  The red-legged seriema has long slender legs, which enable this bird to meander through tall grasses in search of food.  It has an unusual method of hunting—it grabs small animals and reptiles including snakes and slams them on the ground in order to stun their prey.  One of our adult seriemas has been demonstrating this natural behavior for zoo visitors during Wildlife Encounter Shows for years; he even appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman in 2005.

Capuchin monkeys live in family groups.  For the first several weeks, the young monkey will be somewhat helpless depending upon the mother to care for, feed and carry it. Eventually, other members of the group will assist the mother in providing some care to the infant until it is large enough to move about on its own.

South Carolina barber "a little squirrelly"

For three years, a squirel named "Stubs" has been a daily visitor to Charlie Cox's barber shop in Charleston, South Carolina.

When she shows up, Cox stops everything he's doing to give her a peanut. Stubs (named for her short tail)  comes inside the shop and gently takes the nut from Cox's hand.

The relationship started when Cox threw some peanuts to her on the sidewalk. Stubs eventually grew more accustomed to the particularly friendly human and Cox says "we're pretty close now." He even calls her "my girl."

One customer says Cox has always been "a little squirrelly." Shop regulars are used to the daily routine. Read more about it in the Charleston Daily Mail.
photo: Tom Hindman/CDM

Zebra sharks born at Georgia Aquarium

A couple of zebra shark pups are among the newest additions at the Georgia Aquarium. They are the first to hatch from about 13 zebra shark egg pods.

They are being kept in a special tank, getting fed three times a day. Handlers say their appetites are "healthy."

A female shark laid her eggs in the Ocean Voyager exhibit late last year. It takes about six to nine months for the pups to hatch. The youngsters have striped markings which give them their names.

"It's very interesting to see that they look so different from their mother and the reason why they have those zebra striping, when they're younger, is because of the camoflauge and it helps them really blend into their environment so that they're safer when they're younger," said Aquarium biologist Amy Rollinson.

The future of the zebra shark pups is not yet known. They may be placed into the Ocean Voyager exhibit or they may go to another aquarium that wants a zebra shark exhibit of its own.

Zebra sharks are native to shallow waters in the Indian Ocean and the west Pacific. The nocturnal sharks are considered harmless, and eat snails, shrimp, shrimp, crabs, sea urchins and small fish.

"They're mostly all tail," Rollinson said. "When they were born, they were just a little head and the rest was tail."

That's a fair assessment of the full-grown zebra shark, too. Fully half of a 6-foot long zebra shark, native to Australian waters, is a long, wavy tail.
photo: W.A. Bridges, JR./AJC

Why some Robins sing at night

Urban areas are a cocaphany of sounds during the day, which may help explain why some robins in Britain have started singing at night.

Scientists from the University of Sheffield  recorded sound levels at 121 sites around the area for several months in 2005 and 2006. They found robins singing during the day at 67 sites, and nocturnally at 18.  Daytime noise levels were 10 times higher in places where birds are singing at night. At one site, where daytime traffic created a noise of 69 decibels, the scientists discovered a single robin that sang only at night.

The study, which appears in the journal Biology Letters, disproves the myth that some robins sing at night because they believe street lighting is daylight.
photo: Ramin Nakisa 

Billie wins Great Turtle Race

The Great Turtle Race is not just a way to draw attention to the plight of the Leatherback turtle, it is also a metaphor - since the species is, indeed, racing towards an uncertain future.

Researchers put sophisticated tracking devices on 11 turtles as they nested in Costa Rica, then followed their progress as they went on their annual migration to their feeding grounds in the Galapagos. Various conservation groups set up a Web site for everyone could track the turtle's progress and learn more about the species.

Billie, sponsored by the Offield Center for Billfish studies, completed the course first. She is closely followed by Stephanie Coburtle the Turtle (named in honor of Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central).

Organizers (which include The Leatherback Trust, TOPP - Tagging of Pacific Predators, and Conservation International) say Leatherbacks have been around for 100 million years - but their numbers are dwindling at an alarming pace. Thousands of females used to lay their eggs at Costa Rica's Playa Grande. Now, fewer than 100 do so. Experts say they could be wiped out within a decade.

If you want to learn more, or donate to help save the turtles, check out GreatTurtleRace.com and ConservationInternational.com.

"Stud" Rhino gets pampered

Massages and foot rubs might put you in the mood for love. But how about mud?  Andalas, a Sumatran rhino from the Los Angeles Zoo is getting all that, and more, at his new home at a sanctuary in Sumatra.

The idea is to keep him fat and happy so that he'll want to breed. Keepers hand-feed him his favorite ficus leaves, play hide-and-seek with him in the rain forest, gently nuzzle him nose to horn, and massage his cracked feet along with the soft spots of his ample butt. They also provide an ample mud wallow so he can keep cool and comfortable.

The future of the species, which has dwindled to about 300, may be riding on Andalas' hairy shoulders. Poachers and illegal logging have decimated the population. Illegal trafficking in the animals' horns feeds Asia's lucrative black market for aphrodisiacs and other traditional medicines.

Efforts to breed Sumatran rhinos in zoos have largely failed and captive breeding programs may hinge on whether Andalas successfully mates.
photo: Paul Watson/LATimes