A dozen goats have been released from a prison in the Democratic Republic of Congo because they were being held there illegally.
The goats that were found during a routine visit were due to appear in court charged with being sold illegally by the roadside.
It is not clear what will happen to the owners of the goats, who have also been imprisoned. Link
An inquisitive cow had to be freed from a washing machine drum after it got its head stuck in it. “It is one of the more unusual things we had had to rescue an animal from,” said RSPCA spokeswoman Jo Barr. Link
Image via Londieone
A collection of photographs showing death in the insect world. Some are strangely beautiful.
A 20kg (44lb) cat has been found in New Jersey.
"She's built like a quarterback," the big cat's volunteer foster owner Deborah Wright said yesterday. "I mean, how do you lose a 20-kilo cat?!"
The animal shelter that found the giant cat have named it "Prince Chunk" (some news sources say the cat is called "Princess Chunk/Princess Chunky".
It's not the largest cat ever. The largest tabby on record (before it was dropped from the Guinness Book of World Records) was from Australia and weighed more than 21kg. Prince Chunk is just 2kg shy of the record.
View a video here.
A pig has been born in China that slightly resembles a monkey. The 'monkey-pig' has two thin lips, a small nose and two big eyes. Its rear legs are also much longer than its forelegs, causing it to jump instead of walk. Link
Scientists have discovered a chameleon species that spends a good two-thirds of its life inside an egg: Furcifer labordi lives about 8-9 months as an embryo, and has a post-hatching lifespan of just 4-5 months. As far as the scientists know, this strange life history is unique among all land vertebrates, and may help researchers better understand how certain ecological and hormonal factors influence life history evolution. Link
Amazing photos of some very small things such as this mouse embryo. Lots more here.
A newborn red panda that was rejected by its mother at Amsterdam's Artis zoo has been adopted by a domestic cat. The cat is nursing the red panda, currently about the size of a kitten, along with her own four kittens. Aww. Link
I wasn't expecting this to happen.
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| Why You Shouldnt Drive Beside a Running Dog |
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The photo above is the world's largest aquarium. Located in the Churaumi Aquarium in Okinawa, Japan, the enormous tank is some ten metres deep, 35 metres wide and 27 metres long. It is so big, it can accommodate four whale sharks! More images here.
Daily Tails of Chase... is a blog about Chase - a cat born without a face.
Chase, who is now three, was left without a nose, eyelids and skin on her cheeks after being hit by a car as a kitten. According to the blog, Chase is completely healed and is in no pain.
A pig has for 36 days under the rubble of the Chinese earthquake by eating charcoal and drinking rainwater. The pig has been purchased by a museum who will take care of it for the rest of its life. More photos here.
© Kelly Munday via Birdchick.com
A stunning series of photographs showing a bald eagle attacking a swan. According to the commentary on Birdchick.com...
If it is in fact a trumpeter swan, then its average weight would be about 20 pounds, the average weight of a bald eagle would be around 10 pounds. If that eagle is able to grab and kill the swan, it will have to eat it where the swan body lands on the ground--eagles are only able to carry roughly half their weight when in flight.
According to this site, the swan managed to get away from the eagle. [via]
© Northern Territory News
Meet Spew,a cane toad that survived unscathed after being swallowed by a dog and spending 40 minutes in the animal's stomach.
The dog was also lucky to survive. Cane toads have toxic glands in their skin which are capable of killing dogs and cats which try to eat them.
The toads are also responsible for killing tens of thousands of wild animals which attempt to make them a bite-sized snack, from crocodiles and goanna lizards to quolls, a rare carnivorous marsupial. Link
A small colelction of some of the world's strangest looking animals including this bizarre looking Mata Mata turtle.
A spruce tree in the Delarna province of Sweden is believed to be the world's oldest. At 16ft, the tree is 9,550 years old!
The worn and weathered spruce grows in Sweden's windswept tundra. But, until recently, well, recent to the tree at least, it barely resembled a tree at all. Before this last warm century, the spruce grew more like a shrub to survive the harsh conditions of its cold landscape. But rising temperatures convinced the tree to give up its shabby lifestyle, shed the majority of its needles and go with the single-trunk look.
Researchers from Sweden's Umea University found the tree growing amid the remains of four generations of spruce dating from 375 to well over 9,000 years old. Spruce trees can clone themselves by sending new trees up through the ground from established roots. When the scientists tested the current tree, they found it was genetically identical with the remains of all four previous generations. Researchers are excited about having a 10,000-year-long case study of how past climate changes affected plant growth and productivity.
An audience in Tel Aviv broke into laughter and applause when a cat gatecrashed a concert by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. The BBC has a video.
Image via Japundit
Conifer trees in Japan covered in snow and ice and resembling monsters.
They are the Juhyo, or monster trees. Every winter the trees of Mount Zao in the Yamagata Prefecture undergo a shocking transformation. From mild-mannered conifers, these trees become hulking monstrosities of snow and ice.
Link.
National Geographic has some stunning photos of nudibranches (sea slugs).
Image via
These bears must have been waiting for a family to finish building this playground. It was completed on a Saturday and by the next morning they were already playing on it. [via]
Image via Environmental Graffiti
A tour operator in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, along with four lucky tourists, have made the first recording of a a group of Orca whales hunting a dolphin.
Ranier Schimpf was leading a group of divers when they noticed that one dolphin had been separated from a pod by five of the killer whales then repeatedly rammed. The dolphin was sent flying through the air by the force of impact from whales that were several times its size. With the smaller creature finally left laying unconscious on the surface, the whales pulled it below.
The two 7m male, two 5m female, and a 3m calf whales were clearly working as a team against the dolphin, and it appeared it was also a hunting lesson for the calf.
[via]
A small photoset showing two small children saving a puppy from an an aqueduct in Thailand. They managed to get the dog out.
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| Not So Bright Gnu Tries to Take On a Bunch of Rhinos |
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A fearless gnu (or whatever it is) tries to take on 4 rhinos. [via]
Awww! How cute. First they all ran around for a bit, then they all rolled in the grass and then the cheetah cubs realised that their mum didn't catch the little impala for their entertainment.
The photo series, taken in the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya, shows a cheetah cubs learning how to catch and kill pray. It took several minutes but the cubs eventually figured out how to kill the fawn.
A hawk found dead along a California highway with the claw of a songbird protruding from its chest has raised questions over weather the songbird tried to escape after being eaten.
The bird was found by Julia Di Sieno of the Animal Rescue Team in California
A pouch in the hawk's chest area called the crop had ripped open and the songbird, which had been a meal for the hawk, was spilling out.
"We removed a good portion of this bird [the songbird], which was partially digested," Di Sieno said by telephone yesterday. The hawk had apparently just finished downing what might have been a sparrow, she said. "He [the dead hawk] even still had down feathers and meat on his beak."
Di Sieno said she is not sure how the hawk died or what caused its crop to burst open.
Larger image of the bird. Link [via]
Mondex, a five-year-old chihuahua, dressed as a scuba diver, poses during a dog show at a mall in the Filipino capital Manila.
For his troubles, Mondex won first prize in the fashion category. [via]
