All aboard the school wheelbarrow! It's time for all little orangutans to go preschool.
International Animal Rescue operates an orangutan orphanage in Indonesia. It rescues orangutans that have been kept illegally as pets or have lost their mothers in the wild. On the 163-acre forested facility, young orangutans socialize with each other and learn essential skills that they'll need when they're grown up.
Without their mothers, orangutans don't learn what's safe to eat, how to climb trees, and how to survive in the wild. Human caretakers do their best to prepare their students for independent life.
Sunday is Valentine's Day. It will be time to present affectionate gestures to your fellow humans. This is difficult, but not impossible. You can learn how before V-Day by carefully studying this video tutorial by Emily Larlham of Dogmatics, a dog training company in San Diego. Four of her dogs show you the ropes.
Is your kitten smitten? Simon Tofield has animated his cat in love with the neighbor cat before, but it’s not quite romance and flowers for felines. At least not the way humans do it.
Nicky Trevorrow, a cat behavior expert at Cats Protection http://www.cats.org.uk/ tells us about cat mating behavior and the importance of spaying and neutering. Then we get to see Tofield draw his girl cat character, and then we see last year’s Valentines Day cartoon, “Butterflies.” -via Tastefully Offensive
Rani the Golden Retrieve is a genius! She’s caught dozens of fish and turtles by dropping bread into the water, then snatching her prey when they take the bait.
In this sweet footage from the Smithsonian National Zoo, Bei Bei the giant panda cub is completing the milestone of climbing his first tree, as his loving mother Mei Xiang looks on. Yet similar to a human mother and child dynamic, the exercise doesn't leave Mei Xiang in an exhilarated state of abandon as it does her cub.
Six-month-old Bei Bei obviously loves this new activity and is itching to push on up the tree, but his mother is worried that he may get too high up and hurt himself. The adorably gentle push and pull between mother and cub continues until mother finally reels Bei Bei in for good. Via Slate
Wild rabbits live in communities. They’re naturally social animals. Domesticated rabbits are no different—they want to live with other creatures, preferably other rabbits.
But not all rabbit pairs are good matches. That’s why Amy Odum of the Animal Care Centers of New York City arranges for housed rabbits to find good companions among the shelter rabbits that she cares for. The shelter on East 110th Street has a room set aside for dating encounters. Rabbit owners can bring their bunnies in to meet that special somebunny to complete their family. Odum watches the rabbits together to gauge their behavior. The New York Times describes the first date that rabbits Tonya and Moo had:
Tonya sat in a litter box chewing a stalk of hay. Moo stretched, twitching a little, and sniffed her face. Tonya was motionless. Moo jumped back.
“They’re both a little tense,” Ms. Odum said.
The goal, Ms. Odum had said, is not any sort of magical chemistry.
“What I’m looking for is peaceful coexistence,” she said. “We want acceptance of the other bunny in their space without any drama.”
After a while, Tonya hopped over to Moo and gave him a little kiss. He jumped over her like the cow over the moon. They broke into a playful chase, stopped, sniffed each other’s faces. Then Moo approached Tonya and lowered his head.
“That can be a submissive move,” Ms. Odum said. “On the other hand, it can be a demand by a superior to be groomed by a subordinate.”
Moo kept his head low, then pushed it into Tonya’s side. “She’s making him beg — it’s pretty pitiful,” Ms. Odum said.
Bring on the tuna-filled chimichangas! To celebrate the impending release of the new Deadpool movie, Cat Cosplay dressed up this cat as our famous nutcase from the Marvel universe.
This darling baby monkey just wants a playmate and has settled on this cat... or is he purposely trying to annoy the cat? Perhaps a little of both. Regardless, their swing, push and pull routine is entertaining to see. Via Arbroath
Little Lane loves to dress up as Disney characters and meet her professional counterparts at Disney theme parks. In the past, we’ve seen her enchant Gaston, Tarzan, and Jack Skellington. More recently, dressed as Padmé Amidala and met her husband, Anakin Skywalker.
Vader has completely given himself over to the dark side of the Force. But there hides within him a twinkling of goodness. The actor in the Vader suit struggled to stay in character. But the dark side cannot prevail.
Audrey Stone, 62, is legally blind. Figo, her Golden Retriever, is her guide dog. In June, they tried to cross a street. A bus almost rammed into them. Figo blocked her, then leaped at the bus in a desperate attempt to knock it out of the way. CBS New York reports:
As Stone lay injured on the ground, Brewster Police Chief John Del Gardo said despite having a severe leg injury, Figo would not leave Stone’s side.
Amazingly, Figo didn’t yelp in pain but calmly struggled to stay with Stone.
Stone avoided the full force of the impact and survived with only a broken elbow, ankle, and 3 ribs. Figo broke his right front leg. After Stone spent a few months in a rehabilitation home, they reunited in October.
A bunny rabbit goes on an African safari to see the wildlife. But since he’s a bunny, what he sees (with his hilarious fake arm and binoculars) are guinea pigs dressed as various wild animals.
This is the latest from HelloDenizen, the folks behind the Tiny Hamster series. Their greatest accomplishment is figuring out how to make a living by dressing up little fluffy pets. -Thanks, Joe and Elijah!
I will be the first to admit that my knowledge of toucans is largely based on Toucan Sam from the Fruit Loops commercials and that little plaque in front of their cage at the zoo that tells you where they're from and what they eat.
But despite my ignorance on the subject I don't think I've ever heard of toucans being particularly cuddly birds before I saw this video starring Ripley the toucan, who seems to think he's a lap dog rather than a long billed bird.
Rani the goat from Karachi, Pakistan seems to defy gravity as he climbs up on one platform stacked upon another. When you think that he's done, his handler, Osman Ali, adds another. Now, let's see them trade places. That would be a great act.
(Photo: Cookie and his human by Nicole Bengiveno/New York Times)
In rapid succession, you’ve lost your job, incurred high medical expenses, and suffered a house fire. You’re out of money, but need food. So you head to the local food bank. That’s good for you, but what about your cat?
Now some food banks and animal care centers are offering food services to pets in need. They’re called pet pantries. Owners can go there to get cheap, healthy food until they can get back on their feed and support their pets themselves. The New York Times reports:
Cookie, a snow-white pit bull with light gray spots, knows the hand that feeds her. She has become a regular visitor at a new pet food pantry in the Bronx that sends free Costco-size bags of kibble home with owners who may not have enough money to feed themselves, let alone their animals.
Animal Care Centers of NYC, a nonprofit that runs the city’s animal shelters, opened this pet food pantry in December, and in the first month alone, the pantry gave out more than 2,000 pounds of food for 71 dogs and 50 cats.
