Welcome to my blog.
At least three weirdly colored dogs have been spotted in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the abandoned area around the 1986 nuclear reactor disaster site. This month, researchers from Dogs of Chernobyl recorded canines with blue fur, and they’re not sure how it happened.
Earlier this year the West Coast Game Park Safari in Bandon, Oregon was shut down following a years-long investigation into the deplorable conditions at the roadside petting zoo. Hundreds of animals – lions, tigers, chimpanzees, camels, goats, capybaras – were victims of neglect; now some are finding a new life in sanctuaries. The Wildcat Sanctuary in Sandstone, Minnesota shared photos of its adopted jaguar, a sleek cat the shuttered petting zoo had called Lucifer, now known as Louie. The sanctuary also took in Bently the leopard, Nasha the lioness, and Lyla the lynx. The rescues enjoy spacious habitats and tender care in Minnesota, a far cry from their former lives.
When we last left the sea otter known as Otter 841, the 5-year-old female was harassing surfers off of Santa Cruz, commandeering – and occasionally taking a bite out of – their surfboards. That was two years ago; now she’s back, perhaps.
Cougars once roamed freely throughout much of North America but were exterminated in many states by the 20th century, including Michigan, which killed off its last wild specimen in 1906. In recent years the predator has been seen again on the Upper Peninsula and wildlife experts wonder if the species can re-establish a breeding population here.
With Diane Keaton’s passing last week we remember her film career – Annie Hall, the Godfather movies, Reds – but let’s tip our caps to her other passion, “a lifetime of dedication to the cause of animal welfare,” as the Helen Woodward Animal Center writes in a tribute.
The rights of seven chimpanzees, currently behind bars at the DeYoung Family Zoo in Wallace, Michigan, is being heard this week by the Michigan Court of Appeals. At issue is whether the chimps should be granted habeas corpus, a protection against unlawful imprisonment.
A small group of lions have left their traditional stomping grounds in the Namibian desert and have found new life – and plenty of seals to eat – on the country’s Atlantic coast. The 12 lucky lions now prowling the Skeleton Coast are part of a population of maybe 80 stuck in the Namib Desert which features massive sand dunes and the weird Welwitschia plant which can live for 2000 years.
A marine park in Canada hoped to sell its last 30 beluga whales to an aquarium in China, but the deal was kiboshed by the fisheries minister. So Marineland, a near-bankrupt tourist attraction in Niagara Falls, is threatening to euthanize the whales if the government doesn’t cover some of the cost of their care.
There is a frog in Central Africa that is the stuff of nightmares. The Wolverine frog, also known as the hairy frog or most appropriately, the horror frog, is armed with retractable “claws,” sports a hairy hide, and to top it off is a bit poisonous.
When Hurricane Milton whipped through Florida last year, a dog abandoned and tied to a fence was spotted and rescued by Highway Patrol. The bull terrier was taken in by the Leon County Animal Shelter;a video of the dog left alone on Interstate 75 with water rising to his chest went viral.
Early this summer in a Portland, Oregon backyard, a bird’s nest fell from an 80-foot-high fir tree. One baby bird – a crow – died in the fall. Its sibling, found trembling in a nearby rhododendron plant, survived.
A monkey born in the Oklahoma City Zoo is getting lots of attention because of his brilliant orange fur, but it’s perfectly natural for a François langur, an endangered species that starts life with color, then darkens up as it ages.
Earlier this month, the Aquarium of the Pacific announced that its giant Pacific octopus named Ghost had laid a clutch of eggs, but that her days were numbered. She had entered the last stage of her life cycle, senescence, when a female lays eggs that won’t hatch.
The Brooks River in Katmai National Park, Alaska has been especially thick with sockeye salmon this year, which is good news for the park’s brown bears fattening up before the winter hibernation. Contestants in Katmai’s annual Fat Bear Week barely have to move to feast on the fish on their way to their spawning ground.
In August a cow escaped from an Arizona meat processing plant and enjoyed a few brief hours of freedom before being tracked down and returned for execution.
Plans to kill most of the foxes living on Dauphin Island, Alabama have been put on hold this week, when a Mobile County circuit judge issued a temporary restraining order on the project.
A man in Pennsylvania can no longer bring his alligator, an emotional support animal named Jinseioshi, on shopping trips to Walmart. Wesley Silva, 60, says he and his friend are barred at a Walmart in West Brownsville, where they had been shopping for years.
September 11 coincides with the fall bird migration, as birds summering in Canada and New England begin flying south for the winter. Unfortunately they can be disoriented on their journey by the powerful lights emanating from the 9/11 Tribute in Light, causing collisions and avian death.
It took three and a half months of intense medical care and rehab, but a young fox rescued in northeast London in May has been set free at last. The fox had fallen into a container of bitumen – called “asphalt” on this side of the pond – in an ordeal the South Essex Wildlife Hospital said was “one of the most horrific cases we've seen in 35+ years of wildlife rescue.”
