A collection of pictures, videos, news and facts about animals and their habitats.
Posts are those which are submitted or found on external sites as noted.
Brown bear, Kajanaland, Finland -Jan-Peter Lahall / Visions of Nature photo gallery by Jan-Peter Lahall
Whooper swans and jackdaws, Lake Tysslingen, Närke, Sweden - Jan-Peter Lahall / Visions of Nature photo gallery by Jan-Peter Lahall
Snail looking at its reflection in a bubble in Berdichev, Ukraine
Picture: VYACHESLAV MISHCHENKO / CATERS NEWS
REMARKABLE killer whale displays attract tens of thousands of British tourists to marine parks across North America and southern Europe.
But, according to research, the spectacles mask the grim secret that the animals have killed four people and tried to kill or injure dozens more in recent years.
New research lends weight to claims that the huge predatory mammals are so traumatised by years spent in tiny pools, rather than roaming the ocean, that they turn on their human captors.
Four bear cubs climb up a tree for safety as an alpha male approaches them. Fearing for her cub’s lives the mother bear urged them to scramble up the nearest tree trunk while she kept watch on the ground, north Finland.
Picture: Lauri Tammik/Rex Features
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A freely available online tool that can identify the calls of bat species found in Europe could help improve knowledge of the mammals, a study has suggested.
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This cheeky chappie is an increasingly rare sight in the wild. The European Hamster was spotted transporting food in its bulging cheek pouches at a cemetery in Vienna. They are considered to be critically endangered in some European countries because they are considered to be farmland pests and are widely trapped for their fur.Picture: APA- PictureDesk GmbH / Rex Features
The Athlete - Winning image, by Quentin Martinez, of the Wild Wonders of Europe online photo competition
Photograph: Quentin Martinez /2012 Wild Wonders
(Source: Guardian)
Europe’s last wild horses are driven into an arena to pick out young stallions in Duelmen, Germany. It is believed that this is the last herd of wild horses on the European continent in this 350 hectare reservation in western Germany, where more than 300 of the indigenous horses stay free and wild without any care under the protection of the Duke of Croy. Only once a year the new-born stallions are caught and sold, all mares stay with the herd and guarantee the survive of the endangered species
Photograph: Martin Meissner/AP
(Source: Guardian)
Caterpillar of feathers – of the Wild Wonders of Europe online photo competitionPhotograph: José Luis Rodrigue/2012 Wild Wonders
Her name is Green, she is alone in a world that doesn’t belong to her. She is a female orangutan, victim of deforestation and resource exploitation.
This film is an emotional journey with Green’s final days. It is a visual ride presenting the treasures of rainforest biodiversity and the devastating impacts of logging and land clearing for palm oil plantations.
“I wanted to make people feel the pain and the sense of guilt” - Patrick Rouxel who produced silent film Green
Green the film has been show a lot in the media recently, so I thought I’d post a link again for those who haven’t yet seen it.
Thousands of monkeys are being held in overcrowded and barren farms in Laos and sold for international laboratory research, according to a report from a British animal protection group.
Laos has exported nearly 35,000 long-tailed macaques since 2004 as part of a fast-growing trade in the species for research, the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) said in a statement released Monday.
The “appalling conditions and treatment of monkeys inside the breeding farms… breach internationally recognised animal welfare guidelines,” the BUAV said, following a field investigation and talks with primate company owners.
“Some monkeys were found dead in their pens, while others were severely emaciated and/or suffering from severe hair loss and injuries,” BUAV said.
The monkeys in the Laos farms were being sold to companies in China and Vietnam, which then supply primates to laboratories in the United States and Europe, the report alleges.
The species is among the most commonly used animals for laboratory research.
There are concerns that some of the monkeys at the Laos farms could have been taken from the wild as there is insufficient regulation, said the report, whose findings were backed up by other animal protection groups.
“It is always cheaper to take animals from the wild than it is to breed them,” Chris Shepherd, deputy director of Southeast Asia for conservation group TRAFFIC, told AFP.
“The profit margins are huge (and) the money they’re raking in is going to be very significant,” added Shepherd, who has visited Chinese-run monkey farms in Laos.
