animals

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'Extinct' Galapagos Tortoise Still Alive

DNA shows that species thought wiped out in 1840s is on different island

(Newser) - Scientists have located survivors of a giant Galapagos tortoise species thought to have gone extinct back in the 1840s. Researchers testing the DNA of 1,600 tortoises on Isabela Island in the Galapagos discovered that at least 84 were offspring of a species that originally lived on nearby Floreana Island,...

Meet the World's Newest Snake: Matilda

Matilda's Horned Viper, to be precise

(Newser) - A brand-new species of snake sports yellow and black scales, two spiked horns, and a pretty cool name: Matilda's Horned Viper. Scientists discovered it in Tanzania two years ago and it got introduced last month as the world's newest snake species. It's only the third new snake...

Pigeons Ace Math Tests
 Pigeons Ace Math Tests 
study says
Dec 23, 2011 6:56 AM CST

Pigeons Ace Math Tests

Perform as well as monkeys at abstract number quiz

(Newser) - Don't let those blank stares fool you: Pigeons, it seems, are the math nerds of the bird world. Researchers found that the creatures can do more than count—they can handle numbers in the abstract sense, an ability never before seen outside primates, the New York Times reports. Pigeons...

Cat With 26 Toes Helps Save Shelter

Daniel's odd feet has brought in $50,000 and counting

(Newser) - Daniel, an orange-and-white tabby cat, is doing everything he can to save the Milwaukee Animal Rescue Center, and he's doing it by showing off his bizarre feet. He has 26 toes. Donations of $26—one for each digit—are flooding into the nonprofit animal shelter , which was recently hit...

Sweden Mulls Ban on Sex With Animals

Bestiality law would forbid nookie with horses, cows

(Newser) - Any Swedes with a thing for barnyard animals had better start thinking twice about it. Swedish lawmakers are talking about criminalizing bestiality again due to societal changes that make animal hookups easier. ”Today it is very easy, on the Internet and other places, to encounter animals for sexual intercourse...

Jack the Lost JFK Cat Dies
 Jack the Lost JFK Cat Dies 
Nov 7, 2011 12:20 AM CST

Jack the Lost JFK Cat Dies

He succumbs to wounds after 61 days missing at airport

(Newser) - Jack the heart-stealing cat who was lost—then found after 61 days —at JFK Airport has died. “It is with tears that I must tell you that Jack has gone over the rainbow bridge,” reads a statement posted on a Facebook page launched in his honor. The...

Whale Tail Smack Knocks Out Boy, 13

But he's OK, except for a broken collarbone

(Newser) - When a humpback whale’s tail swung over a small boat in Australia, it knocked a 13-year-old boy unconscious—but he survived the onslaught, the Daily Examiner reports. “I was sitting backwards in the boat looking at Drew and the tail just whacked him and sent him flying,”...

Humans Behind Evolution of Dog Bark
 Humans Behind 
 Evolution of 
 Dog Bark 
study says
Jun 23, 2011 5:24 PM CDT

Humans Behind Evolution of Dog Bark

We likely selected for the trait: study

(Newser) - Next time your neighbor’s dog starts yapping, don’t blame the pup—blame humanity. We may be the ones who selected for barking over the course of the domestic dog’s evolution, whether directly or indirectly, a scientist says. He investigated the simple observation that while domestic dogs love...

Court to France: Save the Hamsters or Pay $24M

France not doing enough, faces fines if it doesn't improve

(Newser) - They may be just 10 inches long, but Alsace’s wild hamsters are Great all the same—and France isn’t doing enough to keep them around, the EU’s top court ruled yesterday. If the country doesn't make a better life for the creatures, it faces $24.6...

Leopards, Monkeys, Bear Found in Airport Bags

Anti-trafficking officials tracked Dubai-bound carrier to Thai hub

(Newser) - Thai officials today nabbed a Dubai-bound man who was hauling “a virtual zoo” of endangered creatures around the Bangkok airport. When they opened his bags, they found a yawning bunch of sedated newborns: two leopards, two panthers, two macaque monkeys, and an Asiatic black bear, the AP reports. Anti-trafficking...

Stop Calling Them Pets: It&rsquo;s &lsquo;Derogatory&rsquo;
 Stop Calling 
 Them Pets: It’s 
 ‘Derogatory’ 
in case you missed it
May 1, 2011 11:11 AM CDT

Stop Calling Them Pets: It’s ‘Derogatory’

Editors of a new journal say the words we use impact animal treatment

(Newser) - If you currently have a dog, cat, hamster, or bird living in your house, you should stop calling it your "pet" and instead refer to it as a "companion animal," academics recently suggested. As for yourself, you may legally be the animal's owner, but you should...

Iran Pushing to Ban Dogs as Pets

It could soon be illegal to keep 'impure' animals as pets

(Newser) - Dogs are unclean in the eyes of Islam, but man's best friend in Iran has until now avoided being outlawed. That could all change if a new bill recently proposed in parliament passes: It would make "the walking and keeping" of "impure and dangerous animals" illegal, subjecting...

20K Bats Move Into Georgia House

Creeped-out neighbors revolted by smell

(Newser) - Thousands of Georgia residents are actually benefiting from the housing crisis—trouble is, they’re not human. After the foreclosure of a Victorian house in Tifton, bats began taking up residence in the home; now, 20,000 of the creatures may be inside, prompting the city to make it officially...

Guess What's Loose at the Bronx Zoo?!

A very deadly Egyptian cobra that someone might want to put back in a cage

(Newser) - So the Bronx Zoo seems to have misplaced a pesky little thing we like to call a very deadly, aggressive Egyptian cobra, reports the New York Post. The 20-inch adolescent went missing yesterday, and workers who scoured all the likely places it would hide still haven't found it, reports the...

Animal DNA Brings Abusers to Justice

Genetic evidence spurs convictions, guilty pleas

(Newser) - For three decades, human DNA has been used in court; now, abused cats and dogs are benefiting from their own genetic evidence. Thus far, only a few cases have been won with help from DNA, but its use is “becoming more and more common,” an expert tells the...

Baby Dolphin Rescued From Japan Tsunami Trap
 Baby Dolphin 
 Rescued From 
 Rice Paddy 
TSUNAMI AFTERMATH
Mar 23, 2011 1:37 PM CDT

Baby Dolphin Rescued From Rice Paddy

Man pulls animal out, drives it to sea

(Newser) - A baby dolphin trapped in a flooded rice paddy after Japan’s tsunami has been returned to the sea, Reuters reports. "A man passing by said he had found the dolphin in the rice paddy and that we had to do something to save it," says a pet...

Knut to Be Stuffed, Displayed

Famous polar bear will go to Berlin museum

(Newser) - Knut spent his life on display in the Berlin Zoo, and in death he'll move to a museum. The famous bear will be stuffed and exhibited in Berlin's Natural History Museum, the New York Post reports, citing the Times of London. Even as veterinarians examined Knut to determine a cause...

North Korea: Use Your Dog as an Earthquake Alarm

State media looks to animals' 'sixth sense' for disaster

(Newser) - North Korea has a team of experts ready to alert the country to impending earthquakes—the only trouble is, its members can’t talk. State news media has encouraged citizens to look to their pets for notice of coming natural disasters, advising North Koreans to watch for dogs barking furiously,...

Cats Love the Ladies&mdash; Manipulating Them, Too
Cats Love the Ladies— Manipulating Them, Too
study says
Mar 6, 2011 11:18 AM CST

Cats Love the Ladies— Manipulating Them, Too

A new study shows the bond between owners, cats is intense

(Newser) - If a dog is a man's best friend, then a cat just might be a woman's. A new study shows that the relationship between a cat and its owner is more intense than previously known, actually mirroring a human-only bond—particularly when the owner is female. Cats attach to humans,...

Dutch Beastie Party Puts 500 Cops on Animal Welfare

Party joins political coalition to get cops for creatures

(Newser) - Dutch animals will soon be among the best-protected in the world, thanks to an unlikely alliance between a far-right political party and one that says it's in politics on behalf of animals. Under a government coalition agreement, 500 police officers who were due to lose their jobs because of budget...

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