Bonobo Genome Revelation
Scientists have completed the mapping of the bonobo genome. This means that all five great ape species – chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans and humans – have now had their genomes mapped.
Olympic Opening Called Cruel to Animals
British animal protection organization Viva says the opening ceremony at the Olympic Games will be “wrong on so many levels.” The theme of the show is…
U.K. High Court Votes to Kill Family Dog
Two years ago, animal control officials in Northern Ireland, seized a family pet from the home of Caroline Barnes, a former veterinary nurse whose 11-year-old daughter…
No Zombie Apocalypse, says CDC
In the TV show The Walking Dead, the Centers for Disease Control blows itself sky high in the knowledge that all of humanity is infected with…
Where Horse Racing Meets Drug Trafficking
We already know that it’s time to bring an end to horse racing. It’s just another of those so-called traditions like rodeo that are cruel and…
When Turtles Divorce
Bibi and Poldi in more romantic times It may have been one of the longest relationships on record. But two Giant Turtles at the Austrian Zoo…
Peter Singer Honored by Queen Elizabeth
It’s a tradition in Britain and the Commonwealth for the queen to award special honors each year on her birthday. This year, the controversial philosopher Peter…
When You Feel Blue, Does Fido Too?
When you’re feeling down in the dumps, does your pooch want to comfort you? If so, does she really know what’s going on with you, or…
World on Unsustainable Track, Says U.N.
As world leaders prepare for the Rio+20 environmental summit in Rio de Janeiro, a United Nations report says that despite over 500 internationally agreed goals and…
Where the Earth Has Legal Rights
Bolivia’s Law of Mother Earth recognizes that all living things have certain legal rights, and that the natural world has equal status to human beings.
U.S. Cities Worst Prepared for Climate Change
What’s wrong with this country? While cities around the world are making plans to deal with climate change, cities in the United States are just sitting around like there’s no tomorrow. Which, at this rate, there won’t be.
Do Plants Think?
In his new book, What a Plant Knows, Daniel Chamovitz, director of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences at Tel Aviv University, says they can see, smell and feel – not in the same way as animals, obviously, but certainly their own way.
The Incredible Lightness of Being a Dinosaur
Just about everything we ever thought we knew about dinosaurs has turned out to be wrong. These amazing beings who survived and adapted and are still…
20,000 Species at ‘High Risk’
Part of a larger graphic by the New York Times and the International Union for Conservation of Nature Nearly 20,000 species of animals and plants around…
How Dogs Have Saved an L.A. Neighborhood
In downtown L.A., pet-friendly policies have revitalized entire neighborhoods. In The Atlantic, Marissa Gluck writes: Walking dogs drove residents out of their homes and into the…
L.A. to Ban Using Bullhooks on Elephants?
The circus is coming to town. In a few weeks, Ringling Brothers will be arriving in Los Angeles with all its elephants and other caged animals.…
The Dead Kitty Copter
This takes Monty Python’s dead parrot sketch to a whole other level. And the responses are mixed: from “cute” to “hilarious” to “utterly tasteless” to “completely grotesque and definitely not funny.”
Donkey Rescuer at Queen’s Garden Party
Most days, she’s out looking after the donkeys at the sanctuary she founded in Israel. But last week Lucy Fensom was at Buckingham Palace for one of the pre-Jubilee garden parties hosted by Queen Elizabeth.
Do All Bugs Go to Heaven?
If dogs and cats can go to Heaven, why not chimpanzees, horses, birds, or even mosquitoes and worms? We decided to study what people think about whether all dogs—or for that matter, their fleas—go to Heaven.
Farewell to Oliver the ‘Humanzee’
Oliver was captured in Africa as a two-year-old in the 1960s and sold to animal trainers in the U.S. For the next few years he was exploited for the fact that he had a flatter face than most chimpanzees and tended to walk upright like a human. Perhaps, his owners suggested, he was a hybrid or a “missing link.”