Baboon Gangs!

Baboon “gangs” causing havok in South Africa! They even broke into houses and ransacked fridges! Read here.

Also, this was during the summer but when I was at a state park in Pennsylvania I saw a Great Blue Heron! Way cool, I never saw one in the wild before. I couldn’t get a picture though.

New Reef Species

Exciting! 50 New Marine Species Discovered in Indonesia including a shark that “walks” on reefs.

Emotional Lives of Elephants

I thought this was very interesting. And I have read of previous instances about the emotional lives of elephants. Dying Elephant Elicits Compassion.

Elephants are just too smart and emotional to be used for entertainment purposes (well really all animals are). That’s why you see footage and stuff about elephants going crazy and attacking at circuses etc. And then they have to shoot the elephant when its not his fault to begin with.

Rhino

The West African black rhino is now feared to be extinct, announced the IUCN last week.

Giant Turkey

A Giant Turkey! Yes, a new dinosaur species (Hagryphus giganteus) was discovered in Utah. It was two-legged and bird-like and about 7 feet tall. It was part of a group of dinosaurs known as oviraptors, dinosaurs that had feathers, winglike arms, powerful legs, long claws, and toothless beaks for shearing through food.

Lost world

Some photos of the newly discovered species in Indonesia, including the golden-mantled tree kangaroo. Its been called a “lost world”, an island of new species. Courtesy of National Geographic.

Puffer fish vs. Otter

Here is a really interesting video, Puffer Fish vs. Otter!

Giant Asian ape & humans coexisted

I forgot to post this article about Gigantopithecus blacki, the ancient giant ape. It has been determined that “Giganto” and humans coexisted for a time in China 300,000 years ago. Giganto may be related to Sivapithecus, an extinct ancestor of orangutans.

New species in Borneo

I’ve always been fascinated with Borneo. Now there is even more reason to be! A new species of mammal has been found in Borneo. The last new species of mammal to be discovered there was the the Borneo ferret-badger in 1895. Researchers aren’t entirely sure if it is a new species altogether, or just a different species of marten or civet cat. This newly found species is cat-like in appearance with dark red fur and a long bushy tail.

Elephant mourning

This is an interesting article about elephants and how they react to their dead. I always thought elephants were very emotional animals. They have very close social bonds so it makes sense that they would react someway to their dead. I’ve seen on documentaries that some elephants start rampaging when a close family member is killed.