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For the third time in five years, Fred the labrador has adopted an orphaned brood of ducklings. Fred is the 15-year-old resident dog at Mountfitchet Castle, a living history museum in Essex, England.
A giant African land snail has been spotted in the New Port Richey area of Pasco County in Florida. The snail (Lissachatina fulica) will feed on more than 500 types of plants but nothing will feed on it, nothing in Florida anyway. The invader was first spotted here in 1969 and has since been “eradicated” twice – in 1975 and again last year – but life finds a way.
It’s been known for some time that dogs can identify the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus with a sniff, but now we know a dog’s olfactory ability is so precise it can detect even long covid cases. The new research is published in Frontiers in Medicine.
Winkie Winkerton left her condo above the sink on June 25 after 11 years of happy living in upstate New York. She was at least 16. The good people at Heart of the Catskills, a humane society in Delhi, drove two hours for a prearranged meet and greet at the Kingston Petco, where I waited with a carrier. “Not everyone wants a senior cat,” said her chauffeur. Since no one picked up the black cat sitting in the next cage, I got her too.
Let’s take a closer look at one of the parasites that live on our bodies. A species of microscopic mite (Demodex folliculorum) lives in the pores on our face, as well as in facial hair follicles, including the eyelashes. They are an invisible 0.3 millimeters long and are passed on to us at birth. They mate – right there on our faces – at night.
We’re celebrating the birthday of Pamela Anderson, animal rights activist among other credits, who was born on July 1, 1967. Vogue earlier this year dubbed Anderson “Hollywood’s Top Bombshell.” All good, but we love her for her inner beauty, radiating specifically from her love of animals.
Paleontologists have discovered the oldest known belly button. Using high-tech imaging to examine the remains of a bipedal horned dinosaur of the genus Psittacosaurus, the scientists noticed the thin trace of an umbilical scar in the 125-million-year-old fossilized skin.
Late last year, a team from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida captured and killed one of the thousands (or more) of the Burmese pythons plaguing the Everglades. This one, a female packed with 122 egg follicles, was a whopper: nearly 18 feet long and weighing 215 pounds.
Here’s something you don’t see every day: a chimpanzee digging a well. Digging for water has been observed in elephants, warthogs, wild horses, zebras … and now a primate – the East African chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii). The research appears in the journal Primates.
The chihuahua mix named Mr. Happy Face has issues. The little guy has tumors, neurological problems that make standing or walking a struggle, has to wear a diaper, and holds his head at an odd angle. In spite of these medical problems – or because of them – Mr. Happy Face is a winner: he just took the World’s Ugliest Dog honors in Petaluma, California.
There are species of frogs that are so small, they can’t jump. Well, they can, technically, but they probably shouldn’t: their graceless attempts at leaping always end in awkward belly-flops.
Sheila Nadler (Ida! to her closest friends) passed away on June 25 at the age of 82 having avoided salad her entire life. I knew the end was near when even a large bag of Reese’s peanut butter cups failed to rouse the usual smile of delight.
They called him wrinkled and jowly, and now they call him the best. Trumpet the bloodhound has won Best In show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, held for the second year in a row in Tarrytown, NY.
This is a picture of two friends: the beagle Daisy Mae and the diva Sheila Nadler in what she calls her “domicile” on West 72nd Street. I have been thinking of both a lot recently.
Cats love catnip. They eat it, roll in it, and clearly get a buzz from it. Most cats also love silver vine, a plant not closely related to catnip. Even big cats – like jaguars and tigers – will enjoy a good chew.
Last week fishers in Cambodia landed the world’s largest freshwater fish, a giant 13-foot stingray weighing 661 pounds. The fish the size of a baby grand piano was mercifully returned to its rightful place in the murky waters of the Mekong River.
Last week fishers in Cambodia landed the world’s largest freshwater fish, a giant 13-foot stingray weighing 661 pounds. The fish the size of a baby grand piano was mercifully returned to its rightful place in the murky waters of the Mekong River.
Life is hard for a turtle in Rhode Island these days. "We see a lot of mortality in turtles this time of year and sadly, it's all female turtles carrying the next generation and now sadly we have a poaching crisis,” Lou Perrotti, director of conservation programs at Roger Williams Park Zoo, told NBC affiliate WJAR.
First-time parents, Zola and Azaan, are pleased to announce the birth of a daughter, yet unnamed. The healthy girl is the first aardvark born in the San Diego Zoo in more than 35 years.
The rarest of birds is getting a new lease on life. The beautiful Spix's macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii), which was declared extinct in the wild in 2019, is being reintroduced to its natural habitat, the tropical dry forest in northeastern Brazil.
