I Plan…I Aim…I Execute

Happy #Caturdaypic.twitter.com/gheg2aFe8H

— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) September 3, 2022

🐘 Caring for Mother Earth 🐘

Video Of The Year😲 😱 pic.twitter.com/5QqI7rIbo0

— Nature is Lit🔥 (@NaturelsLit) April 16, 2020

Animal Wisdom

A crow doing his part to save the planet pic.twitter.com/sSJUuFivyC

— Nature is Lit🔥 (@NaturelsLit) April 5, 2020

Animal Wisdom 🐻

Best thing I've seen on the internet today. 😂 https://t.co/EwqBSxbap4

— Katy Morgan (@katymorganwx) April 2, 2020

Amazing

#SundayMotivation

This baby #Elephant thought the man who looked after her was drowning and rushed to save him ❤️ .

Please #BeKindToElephants and STOP KILLING THEM!!! pic.twitter.com/PjTLHIGdBf

— PROTECT ALL WILDLIFE (@Protect_Wldlife) September 15, 2019

In my house the cats have me trained…😼

Meet the most doglike cats ever 😺🌟 pic.twitter.com/nFH9bAE06o

— The Dodo (@dodo) September 3, 2019

Hope you’re enjoying your weekend!

 

The best pool parties include wolves 🐺 pic.twitter.com/A3rEoFmGT4

— Wolf Conservation Center (@nywolforg) July 13, 2019

Animal brains, like humans, sync up with one another

firepaw.org

So it turns out that like humans, animals’ brains sync up with one another during social interactions. This, according to new research examining the neural activity of Egyptian fruit bats and mice engaging within their respective social groups.

We already know from prior research there is synchronization of neural activity in humans’ brains during social activities such as conversation when one person picks up social cues from the other and modulates his or her own behavior based on those cues. Now there is evidence the same thing occurs with nonhuman animals–especially with animals that are highly social by nature like bats and mice.

The synced-up bat study overview

Researchers monitored the bats for sessions of about 100 minutes each as they engaged in a wide range of natural social interactions, such as grooming, mating, and fighting. The bats were filmed with high-speed cameras, and their specific behaviors and interactions were carefully characterized.

As this was happening, the scientists were using a technology called wireless electrophysiology to simultaneously record the brain activity in the bats’ frontal cortices across a wide range of neural signals, ranging from brain oscillations to individual neurons and local neural populations. They saw that the brains of different bats became highly correlated and that this correlation was most pronounced in the high-frequency range of brain oscillations. Furthermore, the correlation between the brains of individual bats extended across multiple timescales of social interactions, ranging from seconds to hours. Remarkably, by looking at the level of correlation, they could predict whether the bats would initiate social interactions or not.

The in-sync mice study overview

Researchers used a device called a miniaturized microendoscope to monitor the brain activities of mice during social situations. These tiny devices, which weigh only two grams, are fitted on the mice and allow the researchers to monitor the activity of hundreds of neurons at the same time in both animals. They saw that mice also exhibit interbrain correlations in natural social interactions where animals freely interact with each other. Moreover, the access to thousands of individual neurons gave them an unprecedented view of both animals’ decision-making processes and revealed that interbrain correlation emerges from different sets of neurons that encode one’s own behavior and behavior of the social partner.

Social interactions are often nested within the context of a dominance hierarchy. By imaging two mice in a competitive social interaction, they discovered that behavior of the dominant animal drives synchrony more strongly than behavior of the subordinate animal. Remarkably, they also found that the level of correlation between two brains predicts how mice will respond to each other’s behavior as well as the dominance relationships that develop between them.

https://firepaw.org/2019/06/25/animal-brains-like-humans-sync-up-with-one-another/

overview

Journal Reference: Wujie Zhang, Michael M. Yartsev. Correlated Neural Activity across the Brains of Socially Interacting Bats. Cell, 2019;

Study DOI: https://firepaw.org/2019/06/25/animal-brains-like-humans-sync-up-with-one-another//j.cell.2019.05.023

.

Journal Reference: Lyle Kingsbury, Shan Huang, Jun Wang, Ken Gu, Peyman Golshani, Ye Emily Wu, Weizhe Hong. Correlated Neural Activity and Encoding of Behavior across Brains of Socially Interacting Animals. Cell, 2019;

Study DOI: https://firepaw.org/2019/06/25/animal-brains-like-humans-sync-up-with-one-another//j.cell.2019.05.022

Bear bribes ‘guard dog’ with deer bones so it can steal from the trash

my-labrador.com

Brickleberry the guard dog accepted a bribe from the bear (Picture: JesseNeon)
Brickleberry accepted a bribe from the bear (Picture: JesseNeon)

They’re supposed to be the most loyal pets around.

But one dog has been allowing a bear to rummage through his owner’s trash – in exchange for deer bones brought for him by the animal.
North Korea ‘fires unidentified projectile’ days after testing rockets

Taking to Twitter, author Jesse Jordan, from Canada, posted a photo of Brickleberry, the mastiff-hound mixed breed, lazily enjoying his gifts beside a pile of rubbish on the ground.

He wrote: ‘My idiot furry son has one job at night – bork at things and make them go away. Easy, right?

‘HOWEVER, a bear has learned that my furry son can be bought. This is the THIRD TIME he’s been gifted deer bones in exchange for being allowed access to my trash, AND HE KEEPS DOING IT.’
METRO GRAB – taken from Twitter Jesse Neon no permission Bear bribes ‘alarm dog’ with deer bones to prevent it waking homeowners so it can rummage the bins Picture: JesseNeon
His owner joked that he would be impeaching the dog (Picture: JesseNeon)

METRO GRAB – taken from Twitter Jesse Neon no permission Bear bribes ‘alarm dog’ with deer bones to prevent it waking homeowners so it can rummage the bins Picture: JesseNeon
Twitter users joked his owner should ‘pay him more’ (Picture: JesseNeon)

Jesse then joked that he clearly had no choice but to ‘impeach him’ as a result of his behaviour.

He said: ‘Although I basically handed my dog this position of power, it’s become very clear that he has no idea how to actually do the job properly.

Teach Your Children to Ask Permission Before Petting a Strange Dog. There are 4.5 million dog bites in America each year, half of which happen to children. Make sure to teach your children to ask permission before petting any strange dogs.

Mother condemns school after her young son looked up porn on iPad

‘Now not only do I have to clean up a huge mess, I see him putting his own self-interest first.’

But, he added that the Brickleberry, who also goes by the name Brick, was not in any danger, describing black bears in the area as ‘giant goofy raccoons’.

‘He is the best boy. His mum died days after he was born, so I raised him by hand,’ he said.
METRO GRAB – taken from Twitter Jesse Neon no permission Bear bribes ‘alarm dog’ with deer bones to prevent it waking homeowners so it can rummage the bins Picture: JesseNeon
The bear enjoyed a rummage through the rubbish (Picture: JesseNeon)

‘He is great with kids and apparently bears.’

Jesse’s tweet has already been liked more than 80,000 times, and shared by more than 22,000 people.

One person teased: ‘This just sounds like you’re not paying him enough. If the bear is offering a better deal, you can’t blame him for taking it. Capitalism.’

Another added: ‘I’m not sure if I’m more impressed by the bear or the dog… or horrified that the Great Animal Conspiracy is moving into its second phase…’

A third suggested: ‘That bear is a true business man, put a suit and list of jobs in the trash next time so he can move up in the world.’

While a fourth just joked: ‘Would not convict.’

INTERESTING FACT ABOUT YOUR PET: Dogs have a sense of time. It’s been proven that they know the difference between a hour and five. If conditioned to, they can predict future events, such as regular walk times.

http://www.my-labrador.com/pets-news/bear-bribes-guard-dog-with-deer-bones-so-it-can-steal-from-the-trash/

It’s Only April and We Already Have the Best Selfie of the Year

twistedsifter.com

gorilla selfie standing 4 Its Only April and We Already Have the Best Selfie of the Year

The official Instagram account for the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo recently shared this viral selfie of a park ranger and two orphaned gorillas named Ndakazi and Ndeze.

According to The BBC:

The image was taken at a gorilla orphanage where the animals were raised after poachers killed their parents. The park’s deputy director told BBC Newsday that they had learned to imitate their carers, who have looked after them since they were found.

The gorillas, he added, think of the rangers as their parents. The gorillas were just two and four months old at the time. Because they’ve grown up with the rangers who rescued them, Mr Mburanumwe added, “they are imitating the humans” – and standing on two legs is their way of “learning to be human beings”. But it “doesn’t happen normally”, he said.

Pictured above is Ranger Mathieu Shamavu. In the images below we see more gorilla selfies taken by another ranger, Patrick Sadiki Sadiki. Being a ranger is an incredibly dangerous job. Five rangers were killed in Virunga National Park last year in an ambush by suspected rebels, and more than 130 park rangers have been killed in Virunga since 1996.

The park also reminds people that this photo happened under exceptional circumstances and that it is never permitted to approach a gorilla in the wild. Donations to the park and their conservation efforts can be made here. https://twistedsifter.com/2019/04/gorilla-selfie-standing-story/#like-122594

Categories: ANIMALS, BEST OF, NATURE/SPACE, STORIES, TRAVEL
Tags: · animals, congo, conservation, gorillas, national park, rare, sanctuary, selfie

Epic Cat Door Fail

Brian Rickett of Cabot,Arkansas bought a brand new cat flap and spent an hour-and-a-half installing it on their door, satisfied with his insulation, Brian wanted to capture Philo using his very own door for the first time. With camera in hand to capture the moment, you can hear Brian saying…. Good kitty…try your new cat door!

 

Shame on You Delta Airlines!!

A disabled man and his “registered service dog”were told to get off a Delta airline plane, strictly because his service dog was a pitbull!

 

Elephants can do Maths – FIREPAW, Inc.

firepaw.org
Elephants can do Maths – FIREPAW, Inc.
Published by firepawinc View all posts by firepawinc
3-4 minutes

The results of a new animal cognition study have demonstrated that Asian elephants have math skills similar to humans.

–
Experimental evidence shows that Asian elephants possess numerical skills similar to those in humans

–

Overview

Asian elephants demonstrate numeric ability which is closer to that observed in humans rather than in other animals. This is according to lead author Naoko Irie of SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) in Japan. In a study published in the Springer-branded Journal of Ethology, Irie and her colleagues found that an Asian elephants’ sense of numbers is not affected by distance, magnitude or ratios of presented numerosities, and therefore provides initial experimental evidence that non-human animals have cognitive characteristics similar to human counting.

–

The study

In this study, the researchers aimed to replicate the results of previous research that already showed that Asian elephants have exceptional numeric competence.

Irie and her colleagues developed a new method to test how well the animals can judge relative quantity. They successfully trained a 14-year old Asian elephant called Authai from the Ueno Zoo in Japan to use a computer-controlled touch panel. The programme was specifically designed to examine the cognition of elephants, so that any unintended factors potentially influencing the results could be ruled out.

–

Authai was presented with a relative numerosity judgment task on the screen, and then had to indicate with the tip of her trunk which one of the two figures shown to her at a time contained more items. These ranged from 0 to 10 items, and contained pictures of bananas, watermelons and apples. The fruit were not all presented in the same size, to ensure that Authai did not make her choices purely on the total area that was covered with illustrations per card.

–

The results

Authai was rewarded whenever she chose the figures featuring the larger number of items. This she did correctly 181 out of 271 times — a success rate of 66.8 per cent. Her ability to accurately pinpoint the figure with the most fruits on it was not affected by the magnitude, distance or ratio of the comparisons. Authai’s reaction time was, however, influenced by the distance and ratio between the two figures presented. She needed significantly more time to make her selection between figures where relatively smaller distances and larger ratios were presented.

–

“This study provides the first experimental evidence that nonhuman animals have cognitive characteristics partially identical to human counting.”

-Dr. Naoko Irie of SOKENDAI, Graduate University for Advanced Studies and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Journal Reference: Naoko Irie, Mariko Hiraiwa-Hasegawa, Nobuyuki Kutsukake. Unique numerical competence of Asian elephants on the relative numerosity judgment task. Journal of Ethology, 2018; DOI: 10.1007/s10164-018-0563-y

Overview
https://firepaw.org/2018/10/23/elephants-can-do-maths/#comments

Brilliant Dog Dragged His Favorite Sprinkler Inside to Cool Down From Texas Heat! (PHOTOS)

onegreenplanet.org

Kelly Wang
Dogs are beautiful. Clever, funny, always there to cheer us up when we’ve had a bad day. It doesn’t matter how horrible a mood we are in, seeing a dog will always give us a lift.

This is even true when they get into mischief, as Cara Wohr from Dallas can attest! Wohr received one of the best possible gifts on her 60th birthday, a beautiful Border Collie who she named Baloo. Border Collies are energetic dogs who need a lot to keep them occupied. Five-month-old Baloo is no different, and Wohr thought she’d lucked out when Baloo became fascinated with their garden sprinkler.

Baloo spends hours each day playing with the sprinkler, snapping at the water and jumping in between the sprinkler’s jets, generally having a great time. But in this recent heatwave we have all been suffering in, Baloo had a dilemma. Keep playing with his favorite toy, or take shelter from the sun inside.
Baloo is an innovative little pup! And unbeknownst to Wohr, he managed to drag the (still-spraying) garden sprinkler into the living room of the house!

Temperatures in Texas have reached around 107 degrees, so we understand the need to cool down. Wohr found Baloo happily still jumping through his favorite jets of water as her TV, ceiling, chairs, and lamp were treated to an impromptu wash!
Image may contain: outdoor

Luckily for Wohr and Baloo, there was only minimal damage to the living room, and because of the heat, it took only a few hours for their home to be dried out again. But we think Wohr has learned a valuable lesson about this cheeky pup. Strange clanking noises outside the home are not to be ignored — at least when Baloo and his garden sprinkler are around!

Hot weather is unbearable for us at times when there is no relief, so imagine what it must be like for animals with thick fur coats! We already know how important it is to keep our dogs out of cars in hot weather, but it’s also important to keep them hydrated and give them access to shelter where they can cool down in our homes as well. Maybe all dogs don’t enjoy sprinkler systems half as much as Baloo, but a little hose down in the garden from time to time surely couldn’t hurt! Keep an eye out for your pets in this hot weather. In the case of dogs like Baloo, you aren’t just looking out for your pet, but possibly saving your furniture as well!

http://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/dog-dragged-sprinkler-inside-cool-texas-heat/?utm_source=Green+Monster+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=dc0847529a-NEWSLETTER_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bbf62ddf34-dc0847529a-106049477

Image Source: Cara Wohr/Facebook

This Husky Knows Exactly How To Cool Off On A Hot Day

In male dolphin alliances, ‘everybody knows your name’ — ScienceDaily

sciencedaily.com
In male dolphin alliances, ‘everybody knows your name’ — ScienceDaily
Jonathon Goodman,
3-4 minutes

It’s not uncommon in dolphin society for males to form long-lasting alliances with other males, sometimes for decades. Now, after studying bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, for more than 30 years, researchers reporting in Current Biology on June 7 find that these males retain individual vocal labels rather than sharing a common call with their cooperative partners.

“We found that male bottlenose dolphins that form long-term cooperative partnerships or alliances with one another retain individual vocal labels, or ‘names,’ which allows them to recognize many different friends and rivals in their social network,” says Stephanie King (@_StephanieLKing) from the University of Western Australia. “Our work shows that these ‘names’ help males keep track of their many different relationships: who are their friends, who are their friend’s friends, and who are their competitors.”

In the new study, King and colleagues set out to better understand what role vocal communication plays in coordinating complex social behaviors, including cooperation, in bottlenose dolphins. The researchers knew from years of study that male bottlenose dolphins form long-term cooperative alliances with one another. However, they did not know how these males used vocal signals to form and maintain these relationships.

To explore the role of vocal signals, they recorded the dolphins’ vocalizations using underwater microphones and determined the individual vocal label used by each of the males. They then measured the similarity of those identity signals within and between alliances to find out whether males with stronger social relationships used vocal labels that were more similar.

“We wanted to understand if allied male dolphins converged onto similar calls as a way of advertising their alliance membership, or whether they retained individual vocal labels,” King explains.

The analysis showed that males in an alliance retain vocal labels that are quite distinct from one another, suggesting that those calls serve a purpose similar to an individual name. That’s in contrast to findings in many other species where individuals with close relationships converge on shared vocalizations as a way of advertising their membership to that partnership or group.

“With male bottlenose dolphins, it’s the opposite — each male retains a unique call, even though they develop incredibly strong bonds with one another,” King says. “Therefore, retaining individual ‘names’ is more important than sharing calls for male dolphins, allowing them to keep track of or maintain a fascinating social network of cooperative relationships.”

King says they will now study the males’ relationships with one another more closely. They’ll play the “names” of individual males back to each other and explore how males respond to members of their alliances in different contexts.

“It will be interesting to reveal whether all cooperative relationships within alliances are equal or not,” she says.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180607112756.htm

Story Source:

Materials provided by Cell Press. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

See How Ants Build Bridges in Mid-Air With Just Their Bodies National Geographic

Capturing the Impact of Avalanche Rescue Dogs ~ National Geographic

“Snowball the Cockatoo Can Dance Better Than You” National Geographic

Rats exchange goods and services using human tit-for-tat rules – FIREPAW, Inc.

https://firepaw.org/2018/02/02/rats-exchange-goods-and-services-using-human-tit-for-tat-rules/

Was This Whale Trying to Save a Diver’s Life? “National Geographic”

Cute Dolphins Check Out Squirrels at Seaworld Orlando Dolphin Nursery

Tiny Paws Are No Match For Powdery Snow. Mama Polar Bear Has To Show Her Cubs A Thing Or Two On How To Get Through The Snow ❄

https://mobile.twitter.com/WorldAnimalNews/status/945748399973945345/video/1

Wild Orangutan Steals GoPro Camera And Takes Expert Selfies – The Dodo

“I went through the images and found a few which were remarkably decent photos.”
By Sarah V Schweig
Published On 12/07/2017

Encountering a wild orangutan is an increasingly rare phenomenon.

Because of threats to the rainforests where they live, the animals are considered critically endangered. That’s why Ian Wood, a wildlife photographer based in the UK, partners with the Orangutan Foundation UK to lead annual trips to Indonesia’s island of Borneo, helping to raise money for these rare apes.

It was on a recent trip that Wood was lucky to have a very rare encounter with the animals — when they decided to steal his camera.
Wild orangutan in Borneo taking selfie with stolen camera 

Wood has been photographing orangutans for decades. And this time he wanted something a little different.

Wood decided to hide the GoPro camera in a patch of forest where the orangutans often congregate. He figured that at the very least he’d get some closer images of them — but he had no idea he’d get, well, selfies. 

Some of the images Wood retrieved from his camera have the uncanny resemblance to the selfies people accidentally take when figuring out how to use a new device; others, however, were surprisingly more sophisticated.
“I went through the images and found a few which were remarkably decent photos,” Wood wrote.

“When a 3-year-old orangutan picked [the GoPro] up I was amazed at the level of interest he showed,” Wood wrote at The Guardian. “My emotions quickly turned to concern when he put it in his mouth and bit it.”

Wood said he wasn’t worried about his camera but the possibility that the young orangutan might try to eat it and choke. “After cracking the LCD screen he took it out of his mouth and accidentally took hundreds and hundreds of photos by pressing the main button,” Wood said. “After about 30 minutes he ran off with it up a tree and I thought that was the last I would see of it.”
Perhaps the orangutan lost interest, because the next moment, a stroke of luck sent the device plummeting back down.
“Eventually he dropped it and I was able to recover my damaged — but still working — camera,” Wood said.
Wood hopes that more people become interested in these amazing creatures so that they’ll be around for much longer.
“Orangutans are critically endangered mainly due to forest clearance for the palm oil industry,” Wood told The Dodo. “However, there are some beacons of hope. These photos were taken in Tanjung Puting National Park, which is well protected and home to over 4,000 of these great apes.”

Dogs Are Berainier Than Cats New Study Finds

Dogs Are Brainier Than Cats!
A new study has some ammunition for dog people everywhere.

The research, published in the journal Frontiers of Neuroanatomy, says dogs may be brainier than cats. That is, dogs have cerebral cortexes with twice as many neurons — the brain cells responsible for thought, planning and behavior – compared to cats. Scientists have associated neuron density with overall cognitive ability – i.e. intelligence.

For the study, a group of researchers led by Suzana Herculano-Houzel, an associate professor of psychology and biological sciences at Vanderbilt University, examined the neuronal density and brain sizes of various carnivorans, a class of mammals that includes many predators – along with some omnivores and and a few herbivores. These animals are of particular interest, according to the paper, because many must outsmart prey to survive, potentially pointing to a higher number of neurons, and thus higher intelligence.

To learn more, the researchers examined the brains of eight mammals: cats, dogs, bears, lions, hyenas, ferrets, mongoose and raccoons. They found that the animals with larger brains also tended to have more neurons, just like non-carnivorans — a similarity that suggest carnivorans aren’t so different from the rest of the animal kingdom, after all.

The results were marked. In addition to dogs’ cortical neurons outnumbering cats’ — to the tune of 530 million to 250 million — they discovered that brown bears had only as many neurons as cats, despite the obvious size difference. Raccoons, on the other hand, had far more neurons than their small brain size would suggest.
A golden retriever that was studied had the most cortical neurons of all, with 627 million.
However, even the researchers admit that their findings shouldn’t resolve the old dogs-versus-cats debate over intelligence.

“While our finding of larger numbers of cortical neurons in dogs than in cats may
 confirm anecdotal perceptions of dog owners and animal trainers as well as unpublished reports that dogs are easier to train and therefore ‘more intelligent,’ cat owners would probably protest, and rightly so,” they write.
“Any argument about their cognitive capabilities at this point will be largely a matter of opinion until direct, systematic comparisons of cognitive capacity are performed across these and other species.”

http://people.com/pets/dogs-smarter-cats/#ampshare=http://people.com/pets/dogs-smarter-cats/

© 2017 Time Inc. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy (Your California Privacy Rights).

“Duke University”Susan Savage-Rumbaugh -Talks about The gentle genius of Bonobos

Raccoons Incredibly Clever: New Study

In life after people raccoons will do just fine.     Raccoons Pass Famous Intelligence Test—By Upending It National Geographic In the new study, the researchers presented captive raccoons…

Source: Raccoons Incredibly Clever: New Study

Cat named ‘Baby’ attacks 7 pit bulls, sending one to vet and owner to ER | WPMT FOX43

VICTORIA, British Columbia – A cat viciously attacked seven pit bulls and a woman Monday, sending one of the dogs to the veterinarian and the pup’s owner to the emergency room.

Kyla Grover, of Victoria, British Columbia, said she was out with a walking group called Pit Bulls of Victoria B.C. Monday night when the cat, named Baby, charged them.

“The cat is swiping at them and latched onto one of the dog’s faces,” Grover told the Victoria Times Colonist. “I got bit and scratched in the process of trying to separate them.”

Rodriguez took her pit bull Bandida to the veterinarian after a cat attack her dog and six others. (Javiera Rodriguez)

“I spent the whole night at emergency because cat bites are nasty.”

The Times Colonist reported that the cat’s owner agreed to foot a $222 veterinarian bill for one of the dogs, Bandida, which ended up with a scratched face.

The cat’s owner, 78-year-old Betty Jean Thompson, said that the cat was startled when one of the dogs showed a friendly interest.

“She’s kind of a slow sort of thinking cat, but one thing is she is very protective of me,” Thompson said.

 

 

Cat Lost In Snowstorm Finds His Way Home 19 Months Later

Will disappeared in the heart of a snowstorm. And after 19 months, his heartsick owner had finally assumed the worst.

And then, in a blink, the cat was back.

Last month, Norma Moore-Dingwell returned to her home in Prince Edward Island, Canada, to find Will waiting in her yard. When she opened the door for him, it might have seemed like the cat had just been on a 19-month bender. He made straight for bed.

“He remembered where his room was, so that was kinda nice,” Moore-Dingwell told CTV News.

New Perth Animal Hospital
While the family is hailing his return as a miracle, Will’s condition suggests he may have blown through at least eight and a half lives to get back home.

“He was in pretty rough shape when they found him,” Dr. Dave Lister, a veterinarian at New Perth Animal Hospital, tells The Dodo.

Indeed, frostbite had claimed a piece of Will’s ear. He was hungry, thirsty and underweight.

But Will set to work feasting himself back to health.

“He gained half a pound in about two weeks,” Lister notes.

The cat may have also suffered from an acute cuddle deficiency. And again, Will wasted no time in remedying that.

“He was a very friendly cat that morning on the table,” Lister says. “He just sat there and took all the attention we gave him.”

New Perth Animal Hospital
Just don’t ask Will where he’s been. Lister could only cobble together a few clues about the cat’s long, strange trip.

Wherever he was, it was cold. Hence, frostbite.

There may have been other cats on the scene. Likely how he got ear mites.
And the food sucked.

“In his case, it didn’t look like he was being fed,” Lister says. “He was probably having to fend for himself by hunting.”

New Perth Animal Hospital
But, most importantly, wherever this cat spent the 19 months, it must have reminded him at last of one sobering reality: There’s no place like home.

Young Gorillas Spotted Dismantling Poachers Traps

peoples trust toronto

Helping share Absolute Data from Toronto

ABOUT

2016/02/05

Young Gorillas Spotted Dismantling Poachers’ Traps For The First Time

http://ift.tt/1PYvX2l

by Arjun Walia, Collective Evolution

Not long after a poacher’s trap killed a young mountain gorilla in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, researchers actually witnessed a couple of four year old gorillas working together to take apart other traps in the area. Large gorillas are able to use their strength to do this, but the younger ones aren’t.

“This is absolutely the first time that we’ve seen juveniles doing that . . . I don’t know of any other reports in the world of juveniles destroying snares. We are the largest database and observer of wild gorillas . . . so I would be very surprised if somebody else has seen that.” – Veronica Vecellio from the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund’s Karisoke Research Centre in Rwanda

It’s sad to think that thousands of snares are set up in these areas, leaving many animals to be caught and left to die.

As Science Alert Points Out:

While adult gorillas are large and strong enough to extract themselves, young gorillas often are not, and if they don’t die from being stuck in the trap, they run a very real risk of dying from injuries sustained during their escape, such as dislocated bones and gangrenous cuts.

Here is the brief version of how the events unfolded from National Geographic:

On Tuesday tracker John Ndayambaje spotted a trap very close to the Kuryama gorilla clan. He moved in to deactivate the snare, but a silverback named Vubu grunted, cautioning Ndayambaje to stay away, Vecellio said.

Suddenly two juveniles—Rwema, a male; and Dukore, a female; both about four years old—ran toward the trap.

As Ndayambaje and a few tourists watched, Rwema jumped on the bent tree branch and broke it, while Dukore freed the noose.

The pair then spied another snare nearby—one the tracker himself had missed—and raced for it. Joined by a third gorilla, a teenager named Tetero, Rwema and Dukore destroyed that trap as well.

Humans have strayed far from the teachings of our ancestors. We once knew the importance of preserving and respecting all living things on this planet. Now, with the rise of today’s consumerist culture, we focus instead on acquiring material possessions, only to discard them and acquire even more, newer versions of these possessions. Worse still, much of what we purchase today has its roots in child labor and animal cruelty/suffering, and all of this is done for the sake of economic growth and globalization.

As a result, as studies have recently shown, the Earth has entered into a mass extinction phase. Vertebrates are disappearing at a rate 114 times faster than normal. These include mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and there are several reasons for this decline. For example, an acre of land is cleared every second to graze animals and grow their food crops, resulting in the loss of over one hundred plant, animal, and insect species. Climate change, pollution, and deforestation seem to be the main culprits.

At the rate we are going, it seems unlikely that humans will be able to survive on this planet as close as one hundred years from now.

This entire experience, however, has served us in a way like no other. More and more people are starting to become aware of what is really happening on this planet and are starting to feel the urge to change. This is a good sign, and something that’s desperately needed at this time. I personally feel that our planet is actually shifting itself in the right direction, but it seems likely that it will be a challenging, if worthwhile, process for us all.

Arjun Walia

I joined the CE team in 2010 shortly after finishing university and have been grateful for the fact that I have been able to do this ever since 🙂 There are many things happening on the planet that don’t resonate with me, and I wanted to do what I could to play a role in creating change. It’s been great making changes in my own life and creating awareness and I look forward to more projects that move beyond awareness and into action and implementation. So stay tuned 🙂 arjun@collective-evolution.com

http://ift.tt/1L3BDa5