Rare white albino tadpoles

Rare albino tadpoles have been found in a garden pond in Wales.

The tadpoles have the distinctive pink eyes and off-white skin coloration associated with albinism. Although isolated single examples of albino frogs, toads and newts have been seen before this is the first time a whole group has been found.

The pond's owner, who first noticed the white-tinged tadpoles, said he did not see any albino frogs using the pond during the breeding season.

Source: Telegraph

A lot of bull

Chilli is a black and white Friesian bullock who weighs well over a ton and at the same height as a small elephant, casts a shadow over his cattle companions who are about 5 ft.

Chilli is 6 feet tall, so his owners have contacted the Guinness Book of Records who are currently assessing his credentials and comparing them to other big bovines.

The heifer, who is almost as high as he is long, lives at the Ferne Animal Sanctuary in Chard, Somerset, after he was left on their doorstep aged just six-days-old.

Source: Daily Mail
via Neatorama

But can he read now?

Dixie, a seven-year-old Mountain Cur from Runnells, Iowa, can now see to chase squirrels to her heart's content, thanks to the new plastic cornea she received in a novel surgery.

Dixie received the first veterinary corneal implant procedure in North America, and one of only a few ever performed. During the surgery, Sinisa Grozdanic, an assistant professor of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at Iowa State University, removed the dog's damaged cloudy cornea and replaced it with a permanent synthetic one.

Source: msnbc

Great tits cope well with warming

At least one of Britain's birds appears to be coping well as climate change alters the availability of a key food. BBC News reports that researchers found great tits laying eggs earlier in the spring than they used to, keeping step with the earlier emergence of caterpillars.

The great tits are laying eggs now about two weeks earlier in the year than they were 47 years ago.

The timing is crucial, because for the two-week period after they hatch, the chicks have to gobble down huge quantities of winter moth caterpillars which only emerge for a short period.

via Presurfer

Is that a squirrel in your pocket ... ?

The City Birder has a cute post about encountering a cute, little, cold, young, squirrel who wanted to make friends.



And here's another tale about a rescued baby squirrel, complete with YouTube video:

Dog Gives Birth To Green Puppy

A newborn puppy is really standing out among his siblings... all because of his color.

The puppy was born last week, and so far, he is perfectly healthy... he's just green.

Veterinarians say this sometimes happens when the mother's amniotic fluid mixes with the placenta during birth and dyes the coat of the puppy.

The puppy won't be green forever. I a few weeks, the green will fade away and the pup will be a light brown or white color.

Source: WCSH6

Why you should always wash your fruit before eating it

Kevin Hudson of Suffolk, got a rude surprise as he was washing grapes to give to his four-year-old son. He spotted a tarantula lurking in the bunch of grapes.

"I was a little bit shocked," he said.

"Spiders don't bother me too much, although it would have been a different story if my wife had been washing them."

Source: BBC News

Care for Apes

What happens to performing primates once they're past their prime? The lucky ones end up in facilities like the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, FL.

Brenda Scott Royce, in the Huffington Post, writes,

" Apes in showbiz have a short shelf life.

The average performing chimp begins his career around age 2. By 7 or 8, when he's no longer the tractable trainee he once was, he's put out to pasture.

Owners tend to not want to keep apes that have outlived their earning potential, and since apes can live into their 50s, that means they'll require decades of care after their careers end. And that care is expensive -- roughly $10,000 a year for a single ape. And while typically everyone involved with a film -- from cast and crew to producers, studios, distributors, investors and exhibitors -- makes money, nothing is put aside for the animals' future. "

The primary purpose of the Center for Great Apes is to provide a permanent sanctuary in a safe and enriching environment for orangutans and chimpanzees in need of long-term life care … specifically those who have been used in entertainment, kept as pets by private owners, or served as research subjects.

Currently, the Center houses forty-three apes, fourteen orangutans and twenty-nine chimpanzees, ranging in age from one to forty-six years. These great apes live in enriching environments and habitats, provided with proper nutrition and companionship and with their own species. They live in large 34-foot tall outdoor habitats with lots of climbing apparatus, swings, and enrichment toys. They sleep in attached heated nighthouses strong enough to withstand Florida hurricanes. The sanctuary is located in South Central Florida on 100 wooded acres surrounded by orange groves.

Pebbles is one of the Center for Great Apes current residents. She arrived at the Center in December 2004 from a California trainer compound where she was worked as an infant in the entertainment business. She still had a few years of working ability ahead of her, but her owner decided to stop working great apes in shows and commercials.

Pebbles loves to swing on vines in her enclosure, play in tubs of water, and wrestle with her orangutan roommates. One of her favorite enrichment activities is painting. Not only will she paint on paper or canvas given to her, Pebbles also enjoys covering herself with nontoxic paint!

via L.A. Unleashed

A pine-y bear

Artist Richard Carpenter made this bear from "hundreds of thousands of pine needles. The pine needles were gathered off the ground, sorted, washed, trimmed and hand woven, over 8 months, in making the life size bear."


From Cellar Image of the Day
via Scribal Terror

Book Review: Merck/Merial Manual for Pet Health

A book that should be in the library of every pet owner and pet lover: The Merck/Merial Manual for Pet Health is an outstanding resource. Written by veterinarians and animal health specialists, the book is still aimed at the public at large. It's easy to understand and also easy to find information quickly.

The book covers health issues in common and exotic pets, but there are also some unusual and interesting special subjects. I found the chapter on diseases spread from animals to people (zoonoses) fascinating because I like this sort of off the wall stuff.

Merck/Merial Manual for Pet Health is a book I will keep handy and will refer to often for the well being of my pets.

Video: Howling for Hillary

Watch video

Cute or not? Baby bunnies

"Bunnies - 1 week old" uploaded by Oh Joy!

Learn about wolves

Little Odin was born in the spring of 1994. He is the grandson of the original "Odin", who was the largest known captive wolf in North America.

Little Odin is a British Columbian wolf. British Columbian wolves are primarily black, however Little Odin has grayed out tremendously since he is getting up in age.

Weighing approximately 130 pounds, Little Odin is and has always been the true star of Big Run's presentations!

Beginning as a one-month old pup, Little Odin has helped educate thousands of people and has no less than 650,000 miles under his paws, going to schools, libraries, etc. He is extremely well-behaved, even among crowds. Being semi-retired now, when he stands at the gate and wags his tail, he’s saying that he would like to go to the program that day.

Little Odin lives at Big Run Wolf Ranch in Lockport, IL. Big Run Wolf Ranch is a federally licensed non-profit educational facility specializing in North American wildlife. They have been licensed for approximately 20 years and doing educational lectures for approximately 14 years.

Many of the animals at Big Run have been rescued wherein the only other alternative was euthanasia. Although they have rescued many animals, Big Run's primary objective is education. Currently, they are unable to comfortably house any additional wildlife. They are in the preliminary stages of planning a larger facility to provide homes for orphaned wildlife. Plans include an on-site rehab medical facility as well as an 1800 sq. ft. on-site education center.

A Mother's Love

Happy Mother's Day!

(AP Photo/Kai-Uwe Knoth)

(manu)

(AP Photo/Jessie Cohen)

(Daniel Hernanz)

(Staffan Windstand)

(cute otters)

(gsdbabe)

(illo_mark)

(Rita Summers)

(markeveleigh)

(Tambako the Jaguar)

(cute with chris)

(gsdbabe)

(Michael Kooren)

Is your house a zoo?

Is your life literally going to the dogs...and cats...and bunnies...and lizards?

Do you have ducks in the bathtub and spiders in the chandelier?

Do you mix up your kids' names with your pets?

Are your kids actually goats?

Animal Planet is developing a new series about families where the pets outnumber the humans, where the daily business of raising a family includes dealing with the whole animal kingdom.

If your house is one where any animal would feel at home, they'd like to know more.

Please send a short introductory email about your family to MyHouseIsaZoo.too@gmail.com.

Include a link to your website if you can. Emails with attachments will not be opened.

One of those days?

I went into the gas station today and
asked for five dollars worth of gas.

The clerk farted and gave me a receipt.

Face it, Hillary - it's all over now

Yup, now that the cats are involved, it's all over for Hillary.

A Curious Audience

From the Darlington Family online collection, at the University of Pittsburg Digital Library, which contains 155 photographs taken by Edith Dennison Darlington Ammon and her brother, O'Hara Darlington, from 1885 through 1888. Photographs contained within the five albums document family, friends, leisure activities, and the artistic approach to photography that both Edith and O'Hara shared.

A Legendary Hunter

Between 1907 and 1938, Jim Corbett killed a dozen large cats who were collectively blamed for more than 1,500 human deaths. While being hailed as India's most celebrated hunter of man-eaters, Corbett developed a vast respect for tigers and leopards. Years spent stalking intelligent and powerful predators through the forests convinced him that these were graceful creatures that deserved respect. Even these man-eaters held his respect, for he understood that they were merely adapting to their desperate circumstances. "The stress of circumstances is, in nine cases out of ten, wounds, and in the tenth case old age," Corbett once wrote, "Human beings are not the natural prey of tigers, and it is only when tigers have been incapacitated through wounds or old age that, in order to survive, they are compelled to take to a diet of human flesh." Indeed, Corbett admired the wild tiger as "a large-hearted gentleman with boundless courage", and he urged India's people to rally for the conservation of "the finest of her fauna."

Read the rest of this fascinating biography at Damn Interesting.

Got a Buck?

Can you afford one dollar per month?
Just $12 per year can help 12 shelters in desperate need of financial help.

Each month the Animals Help Campaign will feature a different animal shelter in dire need of financial assistance.

Send one dollar to that shelter during that month. Your one dollar combined with other dollars will help to raise thousands of dollars for one needy shelter.

And this month's shelter is:
Critter Camp Exotic Pet Sanctuary

Critter Camp cares for the forgotten pets that many shelters do not accept. The animals there were about to be euthanized or had been abused, neglected or abandoned. Critter Camp is a licensed, registered 501c3 non-profit charitable organization, 100% no-kill, operated by volunteers and supported by donations. They care for over 200 exotic and unusual homeless pets of 30 different species!

Critter Camp has hands-on educational fun tours for small groups to learn about and experience animals such as a hedgehog, fennec fox, sugar glider, bearded dragon, chinchilla, and much more.They offer pet owner education and tips on what to consider before you get a pet.

They are planning to build a "green" sanctuary building that will use passive and active solar and wind power and other ecologically sound practices in the near future. They are offering to name the facility after a large initial donor too.

All of the information about the sanctuary, tours, our background and plans are on our site www.crittercamp.biz .

Send Critter Camp $1.00

(more is OK, too)

Art by Deborah Sengl

In her new exhibition “Of Sheep and Wolves” Austrian artist Deborah Sengl continues her exploration of the topics of stealth and deception, mask and simulacrum. Sengl's art is on exhibition at the art gallery Deschler in Berlin, Germany, through May 24, 2008.

Wolf-Sheep-Priest

Puma-Dentist

Saving the planet

Animal Planet has created a great website, The Animals Save the Planet. It has animated shorts, fun downloads, and suggestions on saving the Earth.

My favorite is the farting cow, Stanley, who teaches that livestock is responsible for 18% of total greenhouse gas emissions.


Stanley suggests saving the planet by eating less meat. Well, of course he would say that, duh!

If you like Stanley too, you can download a Farting Cow widget.