A new relationship with animals, nature and each other.

Posts tagged ‘wildlife’

Wildlife to Israel: "Tear Down This Wall."

The Israeli government is considering pleas from wildlife groups in Israel and Palestine to do something that will give local wildlife a way through the separation barrier between the two countries that’s now approaching it’s tenth anniversary.

The impassable barrier, part wall, part series of barbed wire fences, that stretches for 490 miles, was designed to keep Palestinians out of Israel. But like so many other separation barriers that nations have erected against each other over the centuries, it’s devastating to the other animals for whom these boundaries are meaningless.

The Four Types of Elephant Personality

A new study of a herd of elephants in Africa has begun the process of classifying their personalities. The scientists looked at four dimensions of personality: Leadership, Gentleness, Playfulness and Reliability.

One thing they found is that among elephants, leadership is established not by dominance but by the respect gained in showing intelligence and solving problems.

Wildlife Park Owner: ‘Shut Down Zoos!’

Wildlife park owner Damian Aspinall says it’s time to shut down zoos – especially city zoos. And to make his point, he’s preparing to release an entire family of 11 western lowland gorillas from his wildlife park in England to the wild in Africa as part of his charity’s Back to the Wild project.

Penguin Speed Secrets Revealed

How do emperor penguins manage to reach a maximum speed approaching 20 miles an hour when swimming in Antarctic waters where they have to avoid hungry leopard seals? The secret is in the bubbles!

Crying Wolf

They’re salivating at the prospect of a kill, stalking their prey in the wild, cunning and lethal … and we’re not talking about the wolves, but rather the wolf hunters. Five states – Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Minnesota and Wisconsin – are back in the business of killing wolves, and ’tis the season for hunters to be jolly.

Call No Elephant Happy Until She Is Free

It’s a terrible irony that Happy, the elephant who demonstrated to scientific researchers how animals of her species are capable of a high level of self-awareness, now languishes all alone in a cage about twice the size of her body. No animal with the kind of cognitive abilities that Happy has demonstrated belongs in a zoo – and, worse, in a cage.

Till Death Do Us (Coyotes) Part

No cheating, no wife swapping, no ménages-a-trois, no polygamy. Coyote couples are partners for life. That’s the finding of a new study of urban coyotes in and around Chicago. Over six years, the research team didn’t find a single case of a coyote having more than one mate – nor of one mate ever leaving another while the other was still alive.

Gorilla Plays with Toddler

When his daughter, Tansy, was just 18 months old, Damian Aspinall put her in one of the gorilla enclosures at his wildlife park in the U.K.…

Killing Prairie Dogs Is Not an Option

Flagstaff, Ariz., has decided to exterminate the prairie dogs around city parks. Are there too many prairie dogs? Quite the opposite, in fact. They are rapidly disappearing, and we are now down to about 2 percent of the prairie dog numbers that existed 100 years ago.