animals

Image: Colony of Mussismilia braziliensis (photo by Carlos Secchin, from report by SIGEP)
An extensive new reef – deep in the ocean and abundantly packed with unique marine life – has been located by scientists off the southern coast of Bahia state in Brazil. The discovery was made in the Abrolhos Bank in the Southern Atlantic, already one of the world’s largest and most bio-diverse reef systems. Yet it is believed that the newfound reef areas will potentially double the size of the known Abrolhos Bank.

"We had some clues fro...

Penguin life has gotten more precarious since this 1913 NOAA photo.

Penguin populations have been declining and shifting globally as a result of oil pollution, overfishing, guano mining (!) and increased coastal development, according to research by Dee Boersma from the University of Washington, published in the July-August edition of the journal BioScience.

Climate changes cause dramatic shifts
Boersma sees penguins as marine sentinels of the Southern Hemisphere. They depend on predictable climate for their breeding cycles and need high ocean productivity for the krill and fish they su...

Rescuing a 375 lbs Male Black Bear
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologist Adam Warwick just couldn't let the bear drown, so he took off his shirt and dive after it. The 375 lbs black bear had been spotted in a residential area, obviously looking for food, and was shot with a tranquilizer dart. Unfortunately, before it went under, it jumped in the water of the Gulf of Mexico. More photos and a video below....

For those who thought that humans were the only ones using tools...

"The extraordinary image, a world exclusive, was taken in Borneo on the island of Kaja, where apes are rehabilitated into the wild after being rescued from zoos, private homes or even butchers' shops."

"Orang hutan" means "forest man" in one of Indonesia's many languages. ::Orangutan attempts to hunt fish with spear, via ::RichardDawkins.net. See also:

When the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, died a couple of years back, after being stung by a stingray, our obituary post sparked off a torrent of views for and against Steve’s style of wildlife conservation. Let’s see how we fare this time?

Wildlife Warriors Worldwide, the organisation set up by Steve Irwin and his family, is currently building what is described as the “world's largest wildlife hospital” next door to Australia Zoo in Queensland. Which is kinda cool on its own. But we also like that it will be housed in “one of the biggest strawbale constructions in the world.”
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After Beijing's Cat Death Camps, here come the Seal version in Arkhangelsk, Russia.

Seal hunting is controversial, and there's a lot of propaganda coming from both sides. One says that there's nothing special with it, it's traditional and profitable, no big deal. The other claims it's particularly cruel, citing independent studies that show that almost 80% of sealers don't check if the seal is dead before skinning it, and that half of them get skinned alive. But regardless of where the truth lies, we think most p...