When reversing genetics in an attempt to create a real, live, man-eating dinosaur, it pays to know what the consequences may be. In this case, being the paleontologist who advised Steven Spielberg on the making of four Jurassic Park movies and decades of children’s nightmares about killer lizards should just about cover it.
A red-tailed hawk from the San Francisco Botanical Gardens miraculously survived after being shot on purpose by someone with a nail gun. For almost a week after incurring the injury, the nail extended from its cheek through the front of its head. He was rescued over the weekend and is currently being cared for at the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley in San Jose.
A second fatal shark attack, believed to be by a Great White, has occurred off the Australian west coast – the second such attack in 12 days. A 32-year-old US man was mauled to death off Perth’s Rottnest Island on Saturday. By Sunday, Australian authorities were hunting the shark.
Of the 56 wild animals – including six black bears, two grizzly bears, nine male lions, eight lionesses, one baboon, three mountain lions, 18 tigers, and two wolves – that escaped their private wildlife sanctuary in Zanesville, Ohio, only six were rescued; the rest have been shot by local authorities.
No shark cage, spear guns or knives. Just cameras. That’s how photographer William Winram rolls. His business card reads “Shark Publicist”, and he is on a quest to debunk the bad reputation that sharks have gained. With these incredible images he wants to show that our natural fear has been blown far out of proportion due to a couple of unfortunate accidents.
Pictures of a “cyclops shark” , taken in Mexico, appeared online recently. Too strange to be true, it was quickly written off as a hoax. Until now. Scientists have revealed that it is in fact a 22-inch-long dusky shark fetus. It has a single, functioning eye that’s front and centre on its head.
As many as 48 wild animals, including lions, tigers, bears, wolves and cheetahs could be on the loose in the vicinity of Zanesville, Ohio, after they escaped from a private wildlife sanctuary, police said last night. Officer’s say they have shot 25 of the animals so far, but it’s not clear exactly how many escaped, or where they are now.
These amazing images were captured in Zambia next to the Luangwa River by Martin Nyfeler. Watch as an elephant mum finds herself in a wild tug of war with a crocodile after it gets hold of her trunk. Scared and unable to help, her baby hides behind its mother as the crocodile attacked. See how this story ends inside.
British politics is theatrical at the best of times. They’re dealing with cat-gate at the moment, so it just became even more theatrical. A judge has actually ruled that an illegal immigrant could avoid deportation partly because the judge feared separating him from his pet cat and partner risked “serious emotional consequences”.
A Dutch man was caught trying to smuggle more than a dozen live hummingbirds inside his underpants at Rochambeau airport over the weekend. They were individually wrapped in cloth and taped up to stop them from escaping. Airport officials noticed the passenger fidgeting and acting suspiciously, and the man was detained by French customs officers.
On Sunday, 20 000 bullfighting fans packed Barcelona’s La Monumental bullring to watch the last corrida that Catalonia will hold; the event was headlined by Spain’s premier matador, José Tomás. The regional ban on bullfighting, which was approved at the end of last year, goes into effect in January.
The utter tragedy that is rhino poaching hit hardest within South Africa’s wildlife conservation community over the weekend. A top Kwa-Zulu Natal game ranger was killed accidentally by colleagues during an anti-poaching operative on Saturday. The incident, which took place at the Umfolozi Game Reserve in Zululand, has been described as the most devastating event in the history of conservation.
This really has nothing to do with making your pet cat fluorescent so that you can see it in the dark and not stand on it when you get up to go the toilet at night. It has, however, everything to do with the similarities between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV).
Ain’t Mother Nature grand? Especially when one of her chunkier children gets loose near your village. One of her 6.5-meter long, one tonne, man-eating children…
The cleanup of the oil spill at Bloubergstrand continues, and City of Cape Town Disaster teams are still assessing whether the beach can be re-opened this afternoon. The wreckage of the Seli One carrier, which was stranded off the Blouberg coast two years ago, leaked oil onto the beach over the weekend following rough seas.
In other meat-related news today, animal lovers may be pleased to know that China seems to be losing its taste for dog meat. Stats show that more people than ever before now keep dogs as domestic pets in China. While dog meat is certainly still on the menu there, the way dogs are viewed generally is undergoing a major shift across the country.
Researchers in Gothenburg, Sweden, met this week to launch a new “meat without slaughter” initiative – with plans on being able to release bio-sausages in the next six months. Bio-sausages made from exotic animal cells, too, because vat-grown tiger meat isn’t any less ethical than vat-grown bacon.
We live in a progressive city here in Cape Town – we like to think out of the box. And that’s just what Kristin van der Hoven has done by launching Proud Hounds Doggie Daycare in the city. Sick of leaving your precious pup at home while you’re at work? Then bring it to Kristin and the crew for the day.
About 1000 Thai dogs – destined to be cooked and eaten in Vietnam – escaped a gruesome fate when they were rescued by police before the weekend. As you’ll see from the video, they were stuffed into tiny cages, stacked high in scores of crates. Even though the story has a happy ending, please be warned that the visuals are very disturbing.
Aleksandr Pylyshenko, a Ukrainian artist who owns a private zoo in the city of Vasilyevka, plans on living in an enclosure with Katya and Samson, his lions, for five weeks to raise money to improve the zoo’s living conditions and to increase awareness of underfunded private Ukrainian zoos. So that makes sense.
The future is officially nuts. It’s getting to a point where stuff like this probably won’t shock you anymore. It should. Be shocked. These robo-seals, called ‘Paro’, not only bring comfort to recovering Japanese tsunami patients, they also sing, clap, and even take part in the residents daily exercise routines.
A leopard that mauled 11 people in a fierce showdown with villagers and forest officials, in the Indian town of Prakash Nagar, West Bengal, has died of knife wounds after being captured. It’s been reported that the animal was also stoned by villagers after forest officials had eventually managed to subdue the panicked animal.
The last time a 500kg, three-metre long Great White jumped into my boat, I woke up safely under my duvet, with my great white cat playing bouncy castle on my bed. You have to hand it to these boys though, not only did they escape this situation unscathed but they had to shack up with sharky, while being towed to Mossel Bay harbour.
In a scene straight out of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, a five-year-old boy got into a frightening tussle with a Bengal tiger at a golf estate in Limpopo on Saturday. You read all of the above correctly.
Yesterday, the Sunday Times carried a story about a dog attack. A four-year-old girl was mauled by a Rottweiler in the upmarket Hyde Park shopping centre last Monday. But what was unique about this? The dog’s handler is a dog whisperer and also claims to be “Africa’s number one dog expert.”
“Jy speel op Avbob se stoep!” If you aren’t familiar with this Afrikaans saying, get Johan in the office to translate it for you. This is exactly what the dove in this video is busy doing. Watch as this cheeky bugger sides up to a sleeping cat and… no, rather watch it yourself. This is too priceless to spoil!
In their never-ending pursuit to find nuts, squirrels can sometimes forget to look left and right before crossing the road. The end result of this is not always nice, trust me, I work in Stellenbosch and see this daily. But check out this cheeky bugger – attempting to outrun a Lamborghini LP670-4 SV going at 160km per hour. That’s bold!
This scary looking creature is, in fact, a dog. Its short, patchy pieces of hair, spindly, hairless little legs and protruding tongue were enough to ensure that “Yoda” now officially holds the title: “World’s Ugliest Dog”.
The Chinese are being weird again. But since they gave us paper, the compass, and dominoes, perhaps we should let this one slide. The latest craze over there involves dyeing their pets to look like wild animals such as pandas and tigers. See pics inside.
We’ve been following the developments of the Greek financial crisis closely here at 2oceansvibe. What’s more is that dogs have been absolutely killing it this year and so we bring you, Loukanikos, who has hated Greece’s austerity measures, corrupt politicians, and the plight of the Greek people since 2008.