Our love for animals can be traced to our capacity to infer the mental states of others, which archaeological evidence suggests emerged more than 50,000 ago.
Read the original here:
The Creature Connection
Residents in suburban Florida protect their animals and homes from panthers that have been reintroduced in to the wild nearby.
Read more from the original source:
VIDEO: Panther peril in Florida suburbs
Residents in suburban Florida protect their animals and homes from panthers that have been reintroduced in to the wild nearby.
Go here to see the original:
VIDEO: Panther peril in Florida suburbs
Increasing evidence suggests that animals modify their behavior in response to human commotion.
See the original post:
Shhh, and Not Because the Fauna Are Sleeping
Rhesus macaques in an Oregon research center are being turned into couch potatoes with weight problems for study.
Original post:
Today’s Lab Rats of Obesity: Furry Couch Potatoes
In the Schools: Animals, particularly of the canine variety, play an important role in the daily life of some private schools.
See the article here:
City Room: Big (Actual) Dogs on Campus
A nonprofit group announced the winner of a competition to design a crossing to help migratory wildlife cross a section of Interstate 70 in Colorado.
Read this article:
Design Picked for Wildlife Crossing
A border collie knows 1,022 proper nouns, a record that displays the unexpected depths of the canine mind.
Read the original:
Sit. Stay. Parse. Good Girl!
A critical milestone in panda breeding is reached, one that could kick-start attempts to reintroduce the animals to the wild.
Read this article:
Giant panda breeding breakthrough
A New Zealand reptile, the tuatara, is unlike any other vertebrate alive.
See the original post:
Basics: Reptile’s Pet-Store Looks Belie Its Triassic Appeal
Have a weird Christmas with a bird-legged ornament For a creepy Christmas, Conceptual artist Peter Eudenbach sculpted 100 of these pieces called “Chimera,” a sort of traditional Christmas ornament-with-legs. Eudenbach formed the globe itself from turquoise glass, attaching a set of cast pewter bird feet; the decoration is the perfect accessory for a darker holiday. Released through Artware and to be available online next month, each piece sells for $150, measures about 4″ tall and is signed and numbered by the artist. Eudenbach is an assistant professor of sculpture at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. His installations have appeared around the world and are detailed on his personal site .
Visit link:
Chimera
Dave Eggers’ clever new book of drawings Dave Eggers, author and founder of the indie publishing house McSweeney’s recently unveiled yet another creative talent: the knack for drawing. His oversized ” It Is Right to Draw Their Fur: Animal Renderings ” arrives in McSweeney’s book release club members’ mailboxes this week and his first collection of drawings. Packaged in a delightful cardboard portfolio, it consists of 26 posters on heavy and regular stock in three sizes of animals Eggers drew with China marker in the late hours of the evening at the end of 2009 into this year. Most are accompanied by nonsensical sayings as imagined by him, an attempt to put words to the animals’ staid-to-confused expressions. Eggers explains in the enclosed booklet that his drawing background stretches back to his childhood days, when he aspired to become a painter after his hero Manet. He later made extra money through his illustrations. The pictures he’s drawn of animals are simplistic, but the detail lies in the fur. Strokes upon strokes create a coat that you can almost feel with your eyes. For non-subscribers, “It Is Right to Draw Their Fur’s” official release date is 1 October 2010, but it’s already available from McSweeney’s online store or from Amazon .
See the article here:
It Is Right To Draw Their Fur: Animal Renderings
Thanks to a plucky woman from Frenchtown, Montana, we now know how to deal with at least one animal menace. Attacked at home last week by a 90kg black bear, she sent it lumbering back into the night simply by throwing a courgette at it. Local police described this as “improvising”. The vegetable-projectile approach will probably fend off all sorts of creatures. But if you don’t fancy putting it to the test, here are some alternatives.
Hungry monkeys: You could simply give the macaque your Magnum. Failing that, try the “open-mouth threat” – make an O with your mouth, lean forward and raise your eyebrows. Then back away slowly. If that doesn’t work, open a can of beer and talk about football (they’re a bit more afraid of men than of women).
Killer bees: Africanised honeybees aim for your mouth and nose first. So pull your top up over your head, then run, run, run away. Don’t give up too soon – they’ve been known to chase victims for more than 400 metres. If possible, shut yourself in a car or building. Diving into water won’t help – they’ll wait till you come up for air.
Crocodiles and alligators: Whatever some idiots tell you, crocs and gators cannot run faster than racehorses. On land, even humans have a good chance of outpacing them. Forget anything you’ve heard about zigzagging – just leg it. If the reptile gets you into its mouth, don’t waste time trying to pry its jaws open. Stick your thumb or finger into its eye. The pain and shock should make it release you.
Sharks: If it’s trying to take chunks out of your boat, hit it with a paddle or a pole. The vulnerable spots are the eyes, gills and snout. If you’re in the water, you may be able to escape by rapid changes of direction. Sharks are not very manoeuvrable. If you’re in its mouth, do not play dead. Eyes, gills, snout, remember.
Elephants: Plan A: Climb a tree, first making sure it’s big enough that it can’t be pushed over. Plan B: Play dead in the hope that Jumbo will get tired of tossing your body around.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
The UK’s first litter of Northern cheetah cubs born were born at Whipsnade Zoo recently, and their birth is largely due to a specially designed part of the animals’ enclosure.
Read more:
Cheetah’s blind date in Lovers’ Lane
Rabbit hutches sold by Britain’s largest retail chains are so small that they are tantamount to animal cruelty and could cause owners to inadvertently break the law, an animal welfare charity warned today.
With greater numbers of rabbits being sold as children’s pets during the school holidays, the Rabbit Welfare Association & Fund (RWAF) urged retailers to improve their hutches.
Britain’s largest specialist rabbit welfare charity, the RWAF said Argos and Homebase, for example, both sold a £70 hutch that is only 77cm long but is marketed as big enough to allow rabbits to “stretch on their hind legs and run freely”.
The charity said the hutch was barely half the size recommended for laboratory rabbits kept for experiments, while four separate hutches in the Argos range were smaller than the minimum for lab rabbits.
The RWAF said this was hypocritical because Argos had earned “cruelty-free” status from the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection.
Laboratory rabbits spend a relatively small amount of time in hutches, but domestic rabbits may live in theirs for up to 12 years. Any hutch smaller than 122cm x 45cm (4ft x 1ft approximately) gives a floor area below the minimum requirement for laboratory rabbits.
Rae Todd, of the RWAF, said: “Pet rabbits can live in hutches provided they’re big enough for rabbits to hop around, stretch and jump up, and as long as they’re attached to a permanent exercise area.
“But keeping rabbits cooped up alone in hutches of the type sold by these big retail chains is just tantamount to cruelty.”
There is no legal minimum size for a hutch, but the Animal Welfare Act makes it a legal obligation for owners to provide for the needs of their pets, including somewhere suitable to live, the ability to express normal behaviour and being housed with (or apart from) other animals.
The RWAF said rabbit owners cannot meet these legal obligations if they keep their rabbit alone in a hutch. It added that a hutch should only ever be a shelter as part of a larger living area, and never the sole accommodation.
“A traditional hutch and run isn’t the only way to keep pet rabbits humanely,” Todd said. “Many people find it easier to adapt a garden shed as rabbit accommodation, build an attractive garden feature from a converted aviary or child’s wendy house or keep them indoors, house trained.”
She said the organisation had sent Argos an 11-page review of its product range in April, but had received “only a standard reply – which was very disappointing”.
The Home Retail Group, of which Argos and Homebase are members, said it was committed to being a responsible retailer. A statement said: “The RSCPA has advised that it has no current recommendation for the size of a hutch for a single rabbit. In our autumn/winter catalogue we do make it clear that hutches should be used in conjunction with a run, we will be amending the website to that effect. We also offer a discount on a run if purchased in conjunction with selected rabbit hutches.”
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
Owners of chain-store rabbit hutches could be breaking the law, charity warns
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
This article titled “Survival tips: what to do if an animal attacks you” was written by Phil Daoust, for The Guardian on Sunday 26th September 2010 19.00 UTC