They're kestrel chicks
Picture: EPA
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
10 Most Diabolical Fish On Earth
This piranha is one of the disgusting looking creatures included in Environmental Graffiti's list of the 10 Most Diabolical Fish On Earth.
Don't go in the water!
Photo from Flickr, by Laura Travels
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Do you own a bored bunny?
Give your rabbits hours of fun.
This bunny playground is sold by the Bunny Bunch SPCR (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Rabbits), so your money goes to helping rabbits.
For $289.00 at Bunny Bunch Boutique
(via Rabbit Merriment)
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
A horse is a horse, of course, of course
In an effort to stop vets' drugs from entering human diets, the nations of continental Europe, where two million horses are reportedly eaten every year, will be enforcing a new law requiring horse owners to sign a pledge that their horses will not be eaten.
The new regulations come into force on July 1. Horses born after this date, and those born before June 30 who have not been issued a horse passport, will also have a microchip implanted.
A spokesman for the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs said: "Horse passports will clearly identify those horses which are not eligible for the food chain if they have been treated with substances which are potentially harmful to humans.
Source
Photo: PA
Thursday, June 25, 2009
DIY Bird Mobile
Tutus and Turtles says this bird mobile would really brighten up a corner of a child's room. Read more about the how-to here and here, and get the bird pattern here.
(via [bb-blog])
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
You can catch MRSA from animals
An infectious superbug, a strain of bacteria known as MRSA, which has evolved a resistance to antibiotics, has long plagued hospitals but in recent years has become more common in homes. About two years ago, scientists began to suspect that pets can spread this bacteria.
In the July edition of The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Richard Oehler of the University of South Florida College of Medicine and colleagues lay out the latest thinking on MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and pets.
The infections can be transmitted by animal bites and most threaten young children, the researchers note. "MRSA colonization has been documented in companion animals such as horses, dogs, and cats, and these animals have been viewed as potential reservoirs of infection."
"Bites to the hands, forearms, neck, and head have the potential for the highest morbidity," the scientists warn. They conclude: "Much more remains to be learned about MRSA and pet-associated human infections."
Source
Photo from Flickr, by GrahamIX
Will you take your dog to work on Friday?
On June 26 a few thousand companies will participate in Take Your Dog to Work Day, which was created by Pet Sitters International 10 years ago.
The event lets companies across the country celebrate dogs and promote adoption of pets from animal shelters and breed rescue clubs.
Last year, more than 1,000 companies registered, but the American Pet Products Association found that 1 in 5 businesses are currently pet-friendly.
So, which businesses are the most pet-friendly? Petside.com ranks the top 5 pooch welcoming employers:
1. Printing For Less
2. Procter & Gamble's Pet Care division
3. Wonderware, Inc.
4. Diversified Technical Solutions
5. Replacements, Ltd.
Photo from Flickr, by -[Matt]-
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Meet me at the swimming hole
These incredible pictures of orangutans swimming in an Indonesian
river have left wildlife experts stunned.
Playing on the Rungan River, near to Palas Island on Borneo, these
orangutans can be seen swimming and submerging themselves in the muddy
waters.
For experts the behaviour of these orangutans – who like all apes have
a natural fear of water because of predators such as crocodiles -
could prove to be a significant step forward in their evolution.
“This is a rarity – to see orangutans coming down for a swim is
unheard of in the wild,” says Simon Husson – project advisor and
scientific consultant for Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation.
“However, we know that orangutans are intelligent and innovative."
Source
The internet likes rawhide dog bones
At whatdoestheinternetthink?net, I asked what the Internet thinks about rawhide dog bones.
Great news - that's what we sell at i-pets.com!
You can ask the internet a question, too.
(via The J-Walk Blog)
Fat cat ad
From this:
To this:
From the New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Gallery
Image ID: 1261066 & 1259072
Nestle's Swiss Milk posters by John Hassall (1893-1924)
Monday, June 22, 2009
Sick perverts
Muskogee County, OK, prosecutors on Tuesday charged a man and woman with fatally shooting and skinning a 7-week-old puppy they intended to make into a belt.
A judge ordered mental competency testing for Austin Michael Mullins, 26, and Krystal Lynn Lewis, 23.
Muskogee County sheriff’s Deputy George Roberson said Mullins shot the puppy 10 times with a .22-caliber pistol at a park near town, and Lewis then skinned the puppy at her apartment. The pair nailed the hide to a board displayed at the apartment and told investigators they planned to have it made into a belt.
Source
2,500-year-old bird's nest found
A 2,500-year-old bird's nest has been discovered on a cliff in Greenland.
The nesting site is still continually used by gyrfalcons, the world's largest species of falcon, and is the oldest raptor nest ever recorded.
Three other nests, each over 1,000 years old, have also been found, one of which contains feathers from a bird that lived more than 600 years ago.
Like many falcons, gyrfalcons do not build nests out of sticks and twigs, but typically lay eggs in bowl-shaped depressions they scrape into existing ledges or old nests made by other birds such as ravens.
Source
Extreme Mammals
Found only in Thailand and Myanmar, the bumblebee bat is no bigger than a bumblebee and weighs only about as much as a dime.
This is just one of the unusual animals featured at Extreme Mammals, where you can meet some of your more bizarre relatives.
How about you. Are you extreme?
Well, yes and no. On the normal side, we are warm-blooded, have hair, nurse our young and have three middle ear bones. Like ancestral mammals, we have sharp front teeth and grinding back teeth.
On the extreme side, our brains are remarkably big for our body size. Our thumbs can close against our fingers with both strength and delicacy. Our tail is just a remnant of a few hidden bones, and our body hair is very sparse.
How about walking around on two legs? What might seem to humans like the most normal thing in the world is actually one of our most unusual features. The only other mammals that travel primarily on two legs all hop like kangaroos. Walking human-style is rarer in mammals than laying eggs!
Photo: Dr. Merlin D. Tuttle/Bat Conservation International/Photo Researchers
Waste some time
The object of this game is to trap the cat – keep him from jumping off the game board. You click on a circle and the cat jumps one place. Keep it up until you trap the cat and he can’t escape.
(via Bits and Pieces)
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Attention Cat Butt Lovers!
Nothin' can beat the smell of a cat's butt... you'll know it when you smell it!
The Cat Butt Air Freshner has a fresh Hyacinth scent - just like your own cat's, but this is more portable.
Available at Perpetual Kid.
Oooh look, they have Cat Butt Stickers, too!
Want to sleep on your dead pet?
What could be more comforting than the memories of your late pet laid to rest beneath your sleeping head? If a cherished pet's death leaves you sleepless and missing that warm, furry embrace, then Patricia Moore of Naples, Fla., may have the answer: pillows stuffed with your pet's ashes.
Moore started Soft-Hearted Products after she lost her own dog, Samantha. Samantha was cremated and her ashes were returned to her owner in an urn that felt cold and impersonal.
"She was always with me," Moore said. "On my lap, on my bed, next to me. I missed that so much."
Source
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Help Set a Guinness World Record
In celebration of the unique bond between pets and their owners, Petplan Pet Insurance is looking to set a Guinness World Record by creating the world’s largest exhibition of pet photographs.
It’s a mammoth task – they need 138,000 pictures of pets.
Here's one of the entries:
Go visit the National Petrait Gallery --- you can:
- Upload your own photos
- Take a gallery tour
- Find useful tips on caring for your pet
- Find out more about pet insurance
- Print your favorite photos on a whole range of items including t-shirts, bags and mugs.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Meet echidna - the strangest creature evah!
Here's a long-beaked echidna, one of the oldest, rarest, shyest, silliest-looking mammals on earth.
They lay leathery eggs, as reptiles do, but then feed the so-called puggles that hatch with milk — though drizzled out of glands in the chest rather than expressed through nippled teats, and sometimes so enriched with iron that it looks pink.
For reasons that remain mysterious, these monotremes have multiple sets of sex chromosomes, four or more parading pairs of XXs and XYs, or something else altogether: a few of those extra sex chromosomes look suspiciously birdlike.
Another avianlike feature is the cloaca, the single orifice through which an echidna or platypus voids waste, has sex and lays eggs, and by which the group gets its name. Yet through that uni-perforation, a male echnida can extrude a four-headed penis.
They are superior to humans at the other end of their bodies as well: Among humans, the neocortex that allows us to reason and remember accounts for 30 percent of the brain; in echidnas, that figure is 50 percent.
And while we're on the subject,
here's a short-nosed cousin:
blowing a mucus bubble through his nose as he recovers at Taronga Zoo's wildlife clinic in Sydney from injuries received during a road accident.
AFP PHOTO/Greg WOOD
Source
Monday, June 15, 2009
Howlin' Good Music
What happens when a bunch of musicians who really listen to what their dogs are saying get together and produce music?
Some dog loving Chicago-area musicians, under the direction of mastermind Bob Dorman, have created Dog Tracks -- Songs by Dogs.
Songs include "Mama Was a Mutt," "I Gotta Go O-U-T," and "Please Come Home."
My favorite is "Take Me Home" because Dog Tracks -- Songs by Dogs is a novel, entertaining idea, but it is also a great way to help animal rescue and adoption organizations - $1.00 from each CD sold is automatically donated to help pet shelters.
The Dog Tracks -- Songs by Dogs website is a fun place to visit. You can listen to clips of all the songs, meet the musicians, and find rescue organizations in your area to volunteer at or donate to.
According to an article by Sharon Peters in USA Today, only 141 CD's have been sold so far. But Bob Dorman is looking at this in a very positive way
"I know it sounds crazy, but our goal is to sell 1 million copies. That would be 5,000 dogs saved. Well, we've only got 999,859 sales to go."
Maybe we can help - let's all go to www.dogtrackscd.com and BUY A CD.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Skamper Ramp Dog Boat Ramp
Thousands of dogs drown in pools each year.
Senior Pet Products has a solution.
According to the American Pet Association over 71 % of the population own pets, and 51 % of the population own a pool or spa. Together these numbers could spell big trouble for the pets and their owners alike. It is common knowledge that dogs swim by nature; they paddle around in water with little to no difficulty, but getting out of the water is something entirely different. Pets do not usually die because of their lack of swimming skills, but by exhaustion and their inability to exit the body of water.
The Skamper Ramp Dog Boat Ramp - a white, box-corrugated, hi-tech plastic ramp attaches to the side of the pool, walled pond, and even most boats and docks. Animals can see it — day or night — and they "skamper" out on the ramp.
It provides animals with a way out of their water entrapment.
$89.99 at Senior Pet Products
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
This is fishy
Cute?
I don't speak Russian, but I think it's for a series of ads for AquaMagazine.
More here.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Gay German Zoo Pair Raising Baby
Two male Humboldt penguins cautiously guard the entrance to their cave in the "Zoo am Meer" zoological park in Bremerhaven, northern Germany, where they are fostering a six weeks old penguin chick.
After a penguin egg had been abandoned by its biological parents, it was placed in the male penguins' nest, who then adopted and hatched it.
Bremerhaven zoo veterinarian Schoene said the male birds, named Z and Vielpunkt, are one of three same-sex pairs among the zoo's 20 Humboldt penguins that have attempted to mate.
AP Photo/Focke Strangmann
Source
I think I have to read this book
Rossetti's Wombat
The book also describes the strange history of the European fascination with the wildlife of Australia, from the late 18th century onwards.
By 1860, most well-to-do people could buy a pet kangaroo from a London pet shop - and many of them did.
Wombats were rarer and more expensive but the tradition of wombat owning was well established by the turn of the 19th century.
Napoleon had a pet wombat, as did the Duke of Edinburgh.
I can understand why. They are adorable!
"The Wombat is a Joy, a Triumph, a Delight, a Madness!" ~ Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Image source
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Coati are CUTE
Coatis are part of the racoon family, and are also known as the hog-nosed coon, snookum bear and the Brazilian aardvark.
Photograph: Jochen Luebke/EPA
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Rare Baby Rhino Debuted At Madrid's Zoo
A month-old white rhino calf lies next to his mother, named Marina, at the Madrid Zoo, Thursday, June 4, 2009. The unnamed white rhino calf is only the third in the world to have been conceived through artificial insemination.
The baby has yet to be named. The zoo plans to hold a contest asking the people of Madrid to choose between Cronos and Olimpo.
AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano
Monday, June 8, 2009
Australia's koalas at risk from inbreeding
The two largest populations of koalas in Australia are so heavily inbred that they could be wiped out "in an instant" by a single disease, scientists have warned.
A recent study of the tree-dwelling marsupials on Kangaroo Island, which lies off the coast of South Australia, and French Island, off the south-east state of Victoria, revealed that the genetic make up of the koalas was dangerously similar.
More than 20,000 koalas inhabit Kangaroo Island and somewhere between 2000 to 3000 on French Island, but the animals could be quickly wiped out if they were exposed to a disease, the study found.
The inbreeding was the result of a relocation program that began more than a century ago.
Source
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Treat for big kitties
"Clawbreakers! The Catnip Candy for BIG Cats."
Clawbreakers are the catnip equivalent of a 'Jawbreaker' for your Lion, Tiger, Cougar, Puma, etc. (without the sugar)!
These are for real!
They are approx. 12 lbs, and 9.5 inches in diameter. Clawbreakers are recommended for zoo keepers and people specially trained in the care and handling of these animals; unless of course, you plan on giving your house kitty a 'lifetime supply' of catnip.
Only $199.99 at EATS - Edible Animal Treats
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Still around
Protect yourself from the "Swine Flew"
Coopergreen says, "Wear safety goggles at all times."
Friday, June 5, 2009
Cheryl Davis' horse Remington may turn out to be the world's tallest horse. Davis, of Princeton, Texas, hopes to get Remington into the Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest living horse.
The current record holder, Radar, is a Belgian draft horse from Mount Pleasant, Texas.
Remington, a Clydesdale, measures 6 feet, 8 inches from hoof to shoulder, says Davis — only a quarter of an inch or half an inch taller than the reigning horse.
But the formal measurement, she says, will be done by a vet on Friday and Saturday, one with his shoes on and one with his shoes off.
Photo credit: Bunny Morrissey
Source
Weird news: Thousands Of Toads Invade CA Neighborhood
Tens of thousands of tiny toads have been hopping across streets, lawns and patios in a neighborhood of Marysville, Calif., this spring, and scientists say it's partly because of the California drought.
It started about three weeks ago in the neighborhood, which is in close proximity to a small drainage basin that collects rain runoff during the winter and spring. Neighbors told reporters with TV station KCRA that it's the first time they can remember the basin being bone dry.
Dale Whitmore, a California Department of Fish and Game biologist, said the drought killed all of the fish in the lake. Without any fish to eat the toads' eggs, the population exploded.
The western toads are now about the size of a quarter and range in color from gray to brown to green. By the end of the summer, they will be about the size of a human fist.
Source
What happens if you tickle a gorilla?
By tickling young gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans, researchers say they learned that all great apes laugh.
Their findings suggest we inherited our own ability to laugh from the last common ancestor from which humans and great apes evolved, which lived 10 to 16 million years ago.
Primatologist and psychologist Marina Davila Ross of the U.K.'s University of Portsmouth led a team that tickled the necks, feet, palms, and armpits of infant and juvenile apes as well as human babies. The team recorded more than 800 of the resulting giggles and guffaws.
Source
(via Boing Boing)
Saving white lions
A family of extremely rare white lions are about to be released into the wild in a step conservationists hope will save their 'species' from being condemned to captivity.
White lioness Zihra, her mate Mandla and their three one-year-old cubs - sons Zukhara and Matsienge and daughter Nebu - are due to be freed in South Africa within the next few days.
They were each knocked out with an anaesthetic recently so that scientists could collar the big cats. This will help track the pride across the savannah in the future.
Source and More Photos
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Weird news: Missing cat strolls into police station
Rubiks the cat was missing for two weeks after running away from his home in the Wellington suburb of Mt Cook.
But yesterday the black cat simply walked into the Lower Hutt police station, bringing his escapade to an end.
Realising the cat was probably lost, police called the Wellington SPCA and the owners were traced through a microchip he was wearing.
Source
Weird news: Tourists find koala napping in bed
Three Australian women vacationing on an island off the coast of the mainland said they were shocked when a koala chose their hotel room bed for a nap.
The koala entered the home from the balcony and settled for a nap on a bed covered with a blue and pink floral duvet.
Source
A very brave little mouse
Even the imposing presence of an adult leopard at feeding time is not enough to get between plucky young Rattus Norvegicus (better known as the brown rat) and a free meal.
This extraordinary series of images were captured by photography student Casey Gutteridge, as he trained his camera on the leopard for a course project.
Source
Wow, that's old
A well-preserved skeleton of a mammoth that is believed to be about 1 million years old has been unearthed in eastern Serbia.
The skeleton was found 89 feet below ground. The mammoth was more than 13 feet high, 16 feet long and weighed more than 10 tons.
Source
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
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