Large pet reptile found guarding Calif. pot stash

Large pet reptile found guarding Calif. pot stash — Authorities in Northern California made a snappy discovery during a routine probation check: An alligator-like reptile named "Mr. Teeth," who was apparently protecting a stash of marijuana.

When Alameda County Sheriff's deputies entered the Castro Valley home on Tuesday, they not only found 34 pounds of marijuana valued at an estimated $100,000, but also the 5-foot-long caiman inside a Plexiglas tank guarding it in a bedroom.

Associated Press/Alameda County Sheriffs - In this photo released by the Alameda County Sheriffs office, an alligator named "Mr. Teeth" is seen after it was discovered in a home in Castro Valley, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. Authorities say the alligator, apparently used to protect a stash of marijuana inside the home, has been taken to a zoo. When deputies entered Assif Mayar's home on Wednesday for a probation check, they found 34 pounds of marijuana and the five-foot alligator in a tank in the bedroom. (AP Photo/Alameda County Sheriffs)

Caimans are usually found in the wetland regions of Central and South America. They're considered close relatives of alligators.

"We get guard dogs all the time when we search for grow houses and people stashing away all types of dope. But alligators? You just don't see that every day," Sgt. J.D. Nelson said Thursday.

The reptile's owner, Assif Mayar, was arrested Tuesday and later charged with one count of possessing marijuana for sale. Mayar, 32, did not enter a plea during his arraignment in Alameda County Superior Court. He is being held in jail on $20,000 bail and is due back in court on Jan. 15.

He could also face citations from the California Fish and Game Commission, including possession of an exotic animal without a permit.

Mayar told deputies he got the creature to commemorate rapper Tupac Shakur's 1996 death.

"We have come across alligators before, but nobody can remember one this big and situated in such close proximity to act sort of as a sentry to the marijuana," Nelson said.

Officials at the Oakland Zoo said Mr. Teeth died Wednesday, a day after it was seized by county animal control officers.

The caiman was very sick when it arrived at the zoo's veterinary hospital, zoo spokesman Nicky Mora said Thursday.

"The veterinarian said he came in with a poor prognosis and was unresponsive when he arrived here. He passed away overnight," Mora said. ( Associated Press )

READ MORE - Large pet reptile found guarding Calif. pot stash

Gecko Tails Rip Off Along 'Dotted' Line

Gecko Tails Rip Off Along 'Dotted' Line - Like a pair of Velcro stripper pants, gecko tails come off easy. The lizards have pre-formed score lines in their tail that allow them to quickly rip off their tails when a predator has grabbed it, according to a new study.

The gecko tails, which were described Wednesday (Dec. 19) in the journal PLoS One, essentially stick to the body of the animals with adhesive forces.

"The tail contains 'score lines' at distinct horizontal fracture planes where the tail may be released as a response to predation," the authors wrote in the article. "These scores penetrate all the way through the tissue where the structural integrity is maintained by adhesion forces."

 

When the gecko sheds its tail, it leaves zig-zagged extensions at the stump

While scientists have long known that geckos and other amphibians shed their tails to evade predators (and then regenerate them later), exactly how has been steeped in mystery. One possibility was that the lizards had special fast-acting chemicals that essentially broke down connective tissue that held the tail on. But it wasn't clear how chemicals could do that so quickly.

To find out how the lizards lose their tails, the team used several types of microscopes to visualize the lizard tail's structure and also observed the appendage shedding in euthanized geckos.

They found the gecko tail had zigzag lines that separated segments of the tail, forming a "precut" line. When the geckos shed their tail, they left behind a pointy, crown-shaped stump. At the stump, the team was able to see bizarre, mushroom-shaped structures. Those structures, the team hypothesizes, form to reduce the adhesive, or sticky, forces and allow the gecko tail to rip off.

The team also conducted a chemical analysis and found the lizards don't use enzymes to cut off their tails.

Instead, the gecko tail probably sticks on using adhesive forces, or the stickiness that occurs between two unlike molecules. That chemical "glue" would allow the lizards to quickly shed their tail without causing permanent damage. Because geckos can regenerate their tails, it's a good strategy to evade a predator. Geckos already use mysterious adhesives for their sticky feet, so it's not all that surprising that sticky forces would play a role in other parts of their body, the authors wrote.

"The segmentation permits the release in an orchestrated manner, a design that facilitates the lizard's ability to shed its tail easy and quickly without employing a slow protease-based degradation of connective tissue," the researchers wrote. ( LiveScience.com )

READ MORE - Gecko Tails Rip Off Along 'Dotted' Line

People, zoo animals flee Minnesota city flooding

People, zoo animals flee Minnesota city flooding — Exhausted and depressed, Michelle Henry sat in a Red Cross shelter, filling out paperwork and worried about what she'll find when she is able to return to her flooded Fond du Lac home.

Henry, her boyfriend and their two kids were among the 250 residents told to evacuate their neighborhood Wednesday after torrential rains dumped as much as 10 inches in Duluth and surrounding areas, washing out roads, flooding a local zoo and leading the governor to declare a state of emergency.

In this photo provided by Ellie Burcar, a seal that escaped from the Lake Superior Zoo lies on Grand Avenue in Duluth, Minn. around 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June 20, 2012. Some animals escaped from their pens at the zoo as floods fed by a steady torrential downpour struck northeastern Minnesota, inundating the city of Duluth, officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Ellie Burcar)

"It's hard," Henry, 26, said Wednesday night after her family walked into the shelter carrying a pile of pillows and blankets. "It's not fun. We were soaked, but other than that, we're OK. ... I'm more worried about the pictures and stuff we can't replace — the baby pictures, baby books."

She hoped she'd be allowed to return to her home Thursday to assess the damage. Gov. Mark Dayton also planned to tour damaged areas of this northeastern Minnesota city Thursday. The National Weather Service said the heaviest rain over the next couple days would be to the east, and Duluth would see a 50 percent chance of rain again Saturday.

There were no immediate reports of serious injuries, though an 8-year-old boy was swept about six blocks through a culvert in Duluth. The boy suffered some scrapes and bruises but was fine, St. Louis County Undersheriff Dave Phillips said, calling it a "miracle out of this whole disaster."

In addition to evacuations in Fond du Lac and Carlton, the heavy rains also sent zoo workers scrambling to find animals. Workers safely recovered two seals and a polar bear that had managed to escape their enclosures, but about a dozen animals from the barnyard exhibit perished in the flood.

"It's completely devastating," said lead zookeeper Maicie Sykes. She and others were grieving Wednesday and regrouping after the exhausting search that began before dawn.

Furniture from zoo exhibits lay scattered about the zoo, and water marks showed flooding that reached as high as 14 feet off the ground in places, said Peter Pruett, the zoo's director of animal management.

Pruett learned of the disaster with an early morning phone call about a seal on a city street. He went to the scene and found the harbor seal, Feisty, corralled by three police cars. Pruett got a piece of plywood and nudged Feisty along, about a half a block, back to the zoo.

As he was walking with Feisty, he knew her escape could mean trouble, "because if the seal's out, the polar bear very well could be out too," he said.

Zoo employees were called in and began searching for animals in the darkness. One employee found the lions and tigers were still in their exhibits — a relief. But Berlin, the polar bear, wasn't in sight.

"A dangerous animal is out and it's the middle of the night, and you cross your fingers and you pray to whomever you want to pray to that she's still there and not terrorizing some other place," said Pruett.

Thankfully, a zookeeper spotted the bear about 5 a.m. atop the rock wall that encloses her exhibit. The zoo vet and a police officer approached her in a squad car, enabling the vet to safely shoot her with a tranquilizer gun.

He said Berlin was groggy and dirty from her ordeal a few hours later but otherwise OK.

After the bear was subdued, zoo officials got a call that Vivian, the other harbor seal, was seen about a half mile away on a trail. Officials picked her up safely as well.

The zoo was closed Wednesday and will stay closed until officials determine all the pathways, bridges and other amenities were safe. It will take some time to assess the damage, Pruett said.

The zoo has had minor flooding before, but never like this, Pruett said.

"We filled up like a bathtub, and it should not have been that way," he said. "Everything was going so fast. You have a plan, but your plan doesn't take into account the biblical proportions."

Don Ness, Duluth's mayor, said it may take time for the damage to become fully apparent. He said the volume of rain in a short period puts a tremendous amount of stress on sewer and road systems.

"We're concerned about washouts and sinkholes, and they'll likely show themselves in the coming days. ... The water is rushing so hard that we're concerned about the integrity of the roadbeds being washed out," he said. ( Associated Press )

READ MORE - People, zoo animals flee Minnesota city flooding

World's Rarest Whale Seen for First Time

World's Rarest Whale Seen for First Time - The world's rarest whale has been spotted for the first time, in New Zealand, where two of the whales stranded themselves.

The two spade-toothed beaked whales, a mother and calf, stranded and died on Opape Beach on the North Island of New Zealand, in December 2010. The mother was 17 feet (5.3 meters) long and the calf was 11 feet (3.5 m) long.

 

A report describing the whales and the analysis of their DNA appears in the Nov. 6 issue of the journal Current Biology.

"Up until now, all we have known about the spade-toothed beaked whale was from three partial skulls collected from New Zealand and Chile over a 140-year period. It is remarkable that we know almost nothing about such a large mammal," Rochelle Constantine, a marine biologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, said in a statement. "This is the first time this species has ever been seen as a complete specimen, and we were lucky enough to find two of them."

At first, the animals were thought to be much more common Gray's beaked whales. Their identity came to light following routine DNA analysis, which was done as part of a 20-year program to collect data on beaked whale species in New Zealand waters. New Zealand is a known hotspot for whale stranding, and it has the highest rates and greatest diversities of stranded whale species in the world, the researchers report.

The New Zealand Department of Conservation photographed the animals and collected tissue samples.

"When these specimens came to our lab, we extracted the DNA as we usually do for samples like these, and we were very surprised to find that they were spade-toothed beaked whales," Constantine said. "We ran the samples a few times to make sure before we told everyone."

The researchers said they have no idea why the whales have remained so elusive.

"It may be that they are simply an offshore species that lives and dies in the deep ocean waters and only rarely wash[es] ashore," Constantine said. ( LiveScience.com )

READ MORE - World's Rarest Whale Seen for First Time

25 primate species in Africa, Asia reported on brink of extinction from deforestation, hunting

25 primate species in Africa, Asia reported on brink of extinction from deforestation, hunting - - Twenty-five species of monkeys, langurs, lemurs and gorillas are on the brink of extinction and need global action to protect them from increasing deforestation and illegal trafficking, researchers said Monday.

Six of the severely threatened species live on the island nation of Madagascar, off southeast Africa. Five more from mainland Africa, five from South America and nine species in Asia are among those listed as most threatened.

The report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature was released at the United Nations' Convention on Biological Diversity being held in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.

Primates, mankind's closest living relatives, contribute to the ecosystem by dispersing seeds and maintaining forest diversity.

Conservation efforts have helped several species of primates, which are no longer listed as endangered, said the report, prepared every two years by some of the world's leading primate experts.

The report, which counts species and subspecies of primates across the world, noted that Madagascar's lemurs are severely threatened by habitat destruction and illegal hunting, which has accelerated dramatically since the change of power in the country in 2009.

Among the most severely hit was the northern sportive lemur with only 19 known individuals left in the wild in Madagascar.

"Lemurs are now one of the world's most endangered groups of mammals, after more than three years of political crisis and a lack of effective enforcement in their home country, Madagascar," said Christoph Schwitzer of the Bristol Conservation and Science Foundation, one of the groups involved in the study.

"A similar crisis is happening in Southeast Asia, where trade in wildlife is bringing many primates very close to extinction," Schwitzer said.

More than half of the world's 633 types of primates are in danger of becoming extinct because of human activity such as the burning and clearing of tropical forests, the hunting of primates for food and the illegal wildlife trade.

While the situation appears dire for some species, wildlife researchers say conservation efforts are beginning to pay off, with several primates being removed from the list, now in its seventh edition.

India's lion-tailed macaque and Madagascar's greater bamboo lemur have been taken off the endangered inventory for 2012 after the targeted species appeared to have recovered.

Also, conservation efforts have ensured that the world did not lose a single primate species to extinction in the 20th century, and no primate has been declared extinct so far this century, said Russell A. Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and the chairman of the IUCN Species Survival Commission's primate specialist group.

"Amazingly, we continue to discover new species every year since 2000. What is more, primates are increasingly becoming a major ecotourism attraction, and primate-watching is growing in interest," Mittermeier said. ( Associated Press )

READ MORE - 25 primate species in Africa, Asia reported on brink of extinction from deforestation, hunting

Bikinis are thriving but Lebanon's sea turtles are no longer on the beach

Bikinis are thriving but Lebanon's sea turtles are no longer on the beach - The number of sea turtle nests laid on the Tyre Coast Nature Reserve dropped by half from about ten to just five this year, raising concerns among conservationists that the threatened animals may be losing the battle for survival.

Reserve director Hassan Hamza described this nesting season as “weak,” but added that the small number of nests does not necessarily indicate a severe drop in population. He explained that the turtles’ normal breeding cycle is one to two years, resulting in peak and off-peak years.

Two endangered species – the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta), and the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) – lay their eggs on Lebanon’s beaches. Last summer, a number of sea turtles died on Tyre’s shores due to pollution and problems arising from litter. A decrease in the population could lead to an imbalance in the marine ecosystem.

Nesting season usually lasts from May to October, with turtles returning to the place of their birth under the cover of darkness to dig a hole in the sand in which to lay their eggs. When the young turtles hatch, they head instinctively towards the sea, but can be fatally distracted by bright lights and noise.

Because the nests are beset by many dangers, a specialized team from the reserve continuously combs the beach to locate the nests, count them, observe them and protect them from human and animal attacks by fencing them in.

Collecting sea turtle eggs was reportedly quite profitable when soldiers from the island of Fiji served as part of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) until 2000. Some residents of Tyre’s coastal areas would collect sea turtle eggs – considered the most famous Fijian dish – and take them to their headquarters on the coast of Qlaili where the soldiers would pay exorbitant amounts of money for them.

To protect the eggs and guarantee easy movement for the turtles, the nature reserve management has struck agreements with resort owners along the coastline to protect nesting areas during breeding season.

Scientists from Italy collaborated with the reserve to organize lectures for local scientists, to raise awareness and provide guidance about the turtles’ value to the ecosystem and the need to protect them. These lectures stressed the importance of not polluting the sea and reducing light and noise in areas where turtles nest.

The reserve also spearheaded an awareness program for fishermen stressing the importance of keeping the sea clean and not throwing away oil or nylon bags that resemble turtles’ natural prey, jellyfish, and can end up choking the animals.

Sea turtles also sometimes get caught in nets and fishman are tempted to kill them to cut them out.

The nature reserve management is trying to create a permanent observatory to observe the turtle’s movement along the southern coast from Tyre to Naqoura. Their goal, they say, is to protect the sea turtles, welcome volunteers, train them and encourage tourists to visit the area. ( albawaba.com )

READ MORE - Bikinis are thriving but Lebanon's sea turtles are no longer on the beach

Indonesian villagers accidentally burn orangutan they were trying to smoke out of fruit tree

Indonesian villagers accidentally burn orangutan they were trying to smoke out of fruit tree - They were frightened it would destroy their crops - Luckily, conservationists intervened and the animal should survive

Villagers trying to smoke an orangutan out of a fruit tree where he was sheltering accidentally set him on fire.

The distressed animal had been hiding in the leaves above the village of Lower Wajok in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, because its habitat had been disturbed, wildlife experts said.

Locals concerned that it would eat the fruit from the rambutan tree and destroying their crops tried to make it move on by lighting a fire under it on Sunday.

Injured creature: Villagers said they had simply been trying to persuade the animal to move away and not eat their fruit

Worrying development: The orangutan had strayed from the jungle into a rambutan tree

Close call: Locals feared the animal would devastate crops and attempted to force it to flee by setting fire to trees

Experts had initially tried to give it a tranquilliser but their efforts had failed.

The flames were lifted by the wind, however, and set light to the poor creature's fur.

Villagers fought to put out the fire, but fortunately the orangutan fell out of the tree and survived.

It has now been treated by a vet and is expected to make a full recovery in three to four days.

Head of the Natural Resources Conservation Center (BKSDA) in West Kalimantan told BBC Indonesia that the orangutan went to the village because its habitat had been disturbed.

The vet pointed out that the animal is wild, not a pet, so it does not need to be rehabilitated, and will now be returned to the jungle.

On fire: This is the dramatic moment the orangutan was accidentally set alight during a bungled rescue attempt that went terribly wrong

Safety: Rescuers put the orangutan in a box for transportation - but vets said it would recover in days

Badly burned: The wounded orangutan was treated by environmental activists after the fire was put out and it was rescued from the tree

Bizarre occurrence: There are thousands of orangutans in West Kalimantan but none have ever been set on fire before

One local, Ali Zakaria, said: 'It's been 60 years I've lived here. This is just the first time it has happened in the village. Yesterday he made a nest in the palm trees.'

Niken wuri Handayani, Coordinator of Forest Ecosystem Operator BKSDA in West Kalimantan, said: 'Our focus is on evacuation.'

The rehabilitation process is only conducted by the conservation centre if orangutans are living as domestic animals. The nest has been cut down so it will not return.

BKSDA said villagers are educated to not hurt orangutans and report to the organisation if they need help moving the orangutans.

In West Kalimantan, there are about 4,500 to 5,000 orangutans under the watch of the centre, and this is the first time one had been set on fire.

Experts had initially tried to give it a tranquilliser but their efforts had failed

See you later! The animal should not need rehab because it is a wild creature and was never domestic ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Indonesian villagers accidentally burn orangutan they were trying to smoke out of fruit tree

CJ the Chimp Escapes Into Neighborhood Again

CJ the Chimp Escapes Into Neighborhood Again - A pet chimpanzee escaped from her enclosure for the second time in a month, prompting officials to remove her from her Las Vegas neighborhood home.

Animal Control officers used tranquilizer darts to sedate CJ the chimp, but they didn't return her to her owners. First, she was transported to a zoo, and then another private citizen offered to keep CJ in a cage designed for large cats, like lions or tigers, according to ABC Las Vegas affiliate KNTV.

"This looks like we're complete idiots," Timmi DeRosa, who owns the chimp, told KTNV. "Like how the hell could the other chimp get out?"

The first time CJ escaped her enclosure was in July, when she and fellow adult chimp Buddy roamed the neighborhood, banging on cars and terrorizing neighbors. When Buddy tried to leave the police perimeter and walk into a crowd of onlookers, Sgt. Andrew Legrow shot and killed him, according to a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department press release. Legrow has been on the force for 27 years.

One 911 caller told police, "They are wandering down the street. They are dangerous. Bring shotguns. They are wild animals."

This time, officers knew what to do, and although CJ pulled out the tranquilizer dart, she walked into a vacant home with her handler and fell asleep without incident, according to KTNV.

DeRosa said she suspects someone else may have opened the cage because July's incident prompted a political discussion about banning exotic animals as pets.

"We have gotten calls that people want to let CJ out so they can pass the law in Las Vegas, and I just hope to God that nobody tampered with the cage," DeRosa told KTNV.

County commissioners altered their policy on exotic animal ownership on Aug. 7, adding a requirement that permits for wild animals be renewed, regular inspections of animal enclosures and better neighbor notification, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. They also require that the property owner own the animal. DeRosa owns CJ, but the chimp was kept in an enclosure on property owned by Sheri and David Potochan.

Nevada state Sen. Michael Roberson is also drafting a statewide ban on exotic animals, according to KTNV.

Even before the escape this weekend, plans were already in the works to move CJ to a sanctuary in Oregon as a result of the July escape.

"Everything was planned," DeRosa told KTNV. "She was going to have her going away party." ( Good Morning America )

READ MORE - CJ the Chimp Escapes Into Neighborhood Again

How to Tell an Elephant From a Cat? Check the Larynx

How to Tell an Elephant From a Cat? Check the Larynx - Elephants rumble to communicate, sending vibrations across the landscape that other elephants can feel through their feet. But until recently, no one knew how they made their distinctive thundering sounds. Were they purring like cats, or were their voices just very low?

A new study in the journal Science suggests an answer: Elephants rumble the same way people talk or sing, by blowing air past their long vocal folds and letting them vibrate back and forth. These folds are the largest to have been demonstrated to make sound in this way.

“Basically they’re singing, but because their vocal folds are so big, they produce these very low sounds,” said an author of the paper, Tecumseh Fitch, a biologist at the University of Vienna.

Previously, some scientists favored the analogy to cats: To purr, they twitch their vocal folds rhythmically, because the folds are otherwise too short to make such low noises. But Dr. Fitch and colleagues suspected that elephants’ four-inch-long vocal folds could make deep sounds while vibrating freely.

The core pitches of many elephant rumbles are too low for human ears; we hear only the higher overtones and feel the lower vibrations in our chests if we’re standing close enough.

Dr. Fitch and colleagues made their discovery after recovering a larynx from an African elephant that had died at a Berlin zoo. They attached the larynx to a pipe and blew warm, humid air through it while recording the sounds and capturing its movements with high-speed video. From the first time they tried it, Dr. Fitch said, the larynx made the unmistakable sound of an elephant.

“Cows mooing, elephant rumbles, bat echolocation: They’re all made by the same process,” he added. “That we have a physiological theory that can explain that range is really remarkable.” ( nytimes.com )

READ MORE - How to Tell an Elephant From a Cat? Check the Larynx

Usain Bolt vs. The Cheetah: Olympians of the Animal Kingdom

Usain Bolt vs. The Cheetah: Olympians of the Animal Kingdom - The Summer Olympic Games have begun with mostly hairless, bipedal athletes vying for gold. But how would record-breaking runners, such as the fastest man in the world Usain Bolt, fare against the wilder side of the animal kingdom?

Turns out, Usain Bolt would be left in the dust by greyhounds, cheetahs and pronghorn antelope (if he were to take the four-leggers up on a challenge), writes Craig Sharp of the Centre for Sports Medicine and Human Performance at Brunel University in a commentary in the journal Veterinary Record.

Captive cheetah running fast at the facility of cheetah outreach in South Africa.

Sharp points out animal athleticism that would put to shame many a human Olympian, while also noting humans would take home gold in athletic versatility at the Summer Olympic Games.

No worries, though, us bipedallers would give the Dromedary camel a run for its money, at least the fastest of us would. Human runners max out at a speed of 23.4 miles per hour (37.6 kilometers per hour), Sharp said. The Dromedary camel? This ungulate tops out at 22 mph (35.3 kph).

A cheetah would clock in at 64 mph (104 kph), or about twice as fast as the world's top sprinters, while the pronghorn antelope would likely be on the medal stand, pulling out a speed of 55 mph (89 kph). Even he fastest bird, the ostrich, may also take home a medal in one of the running events, clocking some 40 mph (64 kph).

In the pool, both Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps may have some competition; sailfish can reach a swimming speed of 67 mph (108 kph).

Here's a look at some possible line-ups if some other animals were to participate in the Olympic Games:

• Bolt ran 100 meters in 9.58 seconds compared with the 5.8 seconds it would take a cheetah to cover that same distance.
• Bolt ran 200 meters in 19.19 seconds, while a cheetah could sprint that distance in 6.9 seconds, a Black Caviar racehorse would gallop the same in 9.98 seconds, and a greyhound in 11.2 seconds.
• Retired American sprinter and gold medalist Michael Johnson ran the 400 meters in 43.18 seconds. The greyhound? 21.4 seconds. A racehorse? 19.2 seconds.
• Kenyan runner David Rushida, world-record holder for the 800 meters, ran that distance in 1 minute, 41 seconds. That's compared with a 33-second time for the pronghorn antelope and 49.2 seconds for a greyhound.
• An endurance horse could blow marathon record holder Patrick Makau Musyoki (finishing in 2 hours, 3 minutes and 38 seconds) off the course with a finish time of 1 hour 18 minutes and 29 seconds.
• World champ Mike Powell is known for his record-breaking jumps, reaching 29.36 feet (8.95 meters) in the long jump, but that's nothing for a red kangaroo, which can leap 41.99 feet (12.8 m).
• The animal kingdom also has a strong contender for the high jump: The snakehead fish can leap 13 feet (4 m) out of the water, easily snatching the medal from athlete Javier Sotomayor, who jumps to 8 feet (2.45 m).

Even Olympic weightlifters would have to contend with some fierce competition from the African elephant, which can lift 661 pounds (300 kilograms) with its trunk and carry 1,807 pounds (820 kg), the grizzly bear, which can tote some 1,003 pounds (455 kg), and the gorilla, which can lift a whopping 1,984 pounds (900 kg). ( LiveScience.com )

READ MORE - Usain Bolt vs. The Cheetah: Olympians of the Animal Kingdom

Wow! 11-Year-Old Cheetah Breaks Land Speed Record

Wow! 11-Year-Old Cheetah Breaks Land Speed Record - The fastest cheetah on Earth has done it again, breaking her previous world record for the 100-meter dash and setting a new best time of 5.95 seconds.

This feat surpasses the fastest of all human 100-meter sprinters by almost four seconds. Usain Bolt, a Jamaican sprinter now competing at the 2012 London Olympics, holds the human world record at 9.58 seconds in the 100-meter dash.

An 11-year-old cheetah named Sarah broke a world record by running 100 meters in 5.95 seconds on June 20, 2012

Cheetahs, of course, are built to run faster than humans, regularly clocking speeds of up to around 60 miles per hour (96.5 kilometers per hour). During a photo shoot with National Geographic Magazine, a cheetah from the Cincinnati Zoo named Sarah covered 100 meters at 61 mph (98 kph).

The sprint broke Sarah's previous world record, set in 2009 when she ran the same distance in 6.13 seconds. That sprint broke the previous record set in 2001, when a male South African cheetah named Nyana ran 100 meters in 6.19 seconds.

Sarah is 11 years old and is part of the zoo's Cat Ambassador Program. Her sprint was documented with funding from the National Geographic's cat conservation effort the Big Cats Initiative.

The record-breaking run took place on a course designed by the Road Running Technical Council of USA Track & Field. Sarah chased a fluffy toy lure around the course, breaking the record on her very first run.

The secret to cheetah speed is in its long, flexible spine, which allows the animal to cover up to 22 feet (6.7 meters) on every stride. Cheetahs also vary their strides per second as they speed up, taking more strides per second as they run faster. That seems to be a special talent, researchers reported in June in the Journal of Experimental Biology. Other speedy creatures such as greyhounds keep a steady number of strides per second no matter how fast they run.

Cheetahs' sharp claws also act like cleats when they run, giving the big cats traction.

Cheetahs are endangered in the wild, with an estimated 9,000 to 12,000 living outside of zoos today. ( LiveScience.com )

READ MORE - Wow! 11-Year-Old Cheetah Breaks Land Speed Record

Do wild animals keep pets

Do wild animals keep pets - It's fun to attribute human behaviors to animals – to imagine that the cat has a "favorite" toy, or to call the dogs "sisters" even if they came from different litters of puppies. We even dress up our pets sometimes. But as amusing as it is to think of pets as furry people and treat them accordingly, most of us understand that there are some human behaviors pets don't engage in. They don't read movie reviews, or drive ( Toonces excepted ), or keep pets of their own.

Or do they?

Koko and her new kitten friend, 1985.

In his piece on HuffPo, Professor Hal Herzog admitted that, despite his unequivocal claim that "The human being is the only animal that keeps members of other species for extended periods of time purely for enjoyment," recent evidence may induce him to revise the next edition of his book, "Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard To Think Straight About Animals." Turns out a friend forwarded Herzog an article from the American Journal of Primatology, which described a group of bearded capuchin monkeys who had taken in a baby marmoset – another species entirely. Co-written by Dorothy Fragaszy, a University of Georgia primatologist studying the capuchins in a private Brazilian nature preserve, and photographed by epidemiologist and naturalist Jeanne Shirley, the article featured Shirley's photos of the capuchins carrying the marmoset around – even feeding it.

That may not mean the capuchins thought of the marmoset as a pet, though. They could have seen the little marmoset (named "Fortunata" by the researchers) as a baby capuchin: they fed her, chirped to her in their language, and toted her around on their backs. They were careful not to roughhouse with Fortunata, who's much smaller than their species. And she stayed with them from infancy until roughly the age of marmoset adulthood.

Y! News: Indonesian police seize stuffed tigers in crackdown on illegal-wildlife trade
Fortunata disappeared one day, though, and Fragaszy still doesn't know why – did she strike out on her own? Did a predator strike her? Nor did she conclude that the capuchins kept Fortunata as a pet (the paper calls the relationship an "adoption," which could go either way), although she said in an email to Herzog that "there is an obvious parallel" between the capuchins' treatment of Fortunata and Herzog's of his cat Tilly.

Owen and Mzee just chillin', 2005.

Herzog admits that he can cite "scads of examples" of animals of different species befriending and becoming dependent on one another – Koko the gorilla and her kitten. Owen the baby hippo and his BFF, Mzee the tortoise, who bonded after a tsunami separated Owen from his mom. Tarra, an Asian elephant quartered at a sanctuary in Tennessee, and Bella the dog. He even notes articles that cite wild chimps "playing" with smaller animals like hyraxes, although those relationships didn't end well ("the chimps killed their new pals and proceeded to toss their corpses around like rag dolls" – yikes).

But most of these animals live in captivity – even the capuchins aren't entirely "wild," living as they do in a preserve – and while those interspecies bonds are obviously sincere (and not based in sheer practicality, like that between a shark and a remora), it's hard to say how the capuchins saw the situation. Was Fortunata a pet to them? A stepchild? A young friend or a mysterious toy?

We're leaning towards "adoption" here; we're not sure it's safe to assume that other species, even primates, approximate relationships the same way humans do. On the other hand, however the capuchins thought of Fortunata, they obviously loved her – just as humans love pets.

Do you think other animals "keep pets"? Do your pets "keep" each other sometimes? (Are you counting the cat's "pet" moth?) Discuss in the comments! ( yahoo.com )

READ MORE - Do wild animals keep pets

Orangutan Sent to Island to Kick Smoking Habit

Orangutan Sent to Island to Kick Smoking Habit - Hollywood stars always make headlines when their handlers send them to a far-off location to kick an unhealthy habit, but it turns out they're not the only ones.

Grabbing headlines now is Tori, a 13-year-old orangutan who has been sent by her keepers at Indonesia's Taru Jurug Zoo to a deserted island in the middle of a lake within the zoo in order to kick her smoking habit.

Tori, one of four orangutans at the zoo in the Central Java town of Solo, picked up her love of cigarettes from humans who would throw their discarded cigarette butts into her cage.

"A common problem for zoos in Indonesia are naughty visitors," zoo director Lilik Kristianto told the Jakarta Globe newspaper. "Although there are sign prohibiting them from giving food or cigarettes to the animals, they keep on doing it. It is not rare that visitors even hurt the animals."

Tori would hold the still-lit cigarettes between her fingers and puff, just as she watched the humans do, zookeepers said.

Also relegated to the remote island with Tori on Wednesday was her male companion, Didk, who didn't share her same smoking habit but did have a tendency to stamp on the butts to put them out, according to the zoo.

The permanent move is not completely punitive, however. The new island, the zoo says, is a more comfortable home for the primates that has grass and trees to better mimic their natural environment.

"Tori can climb five big trees on the island. This might be the best orangutan enclosure in Indonesia," Kristianto said. ( ABC News )

READ MORE - Orangutan Sent to Island to Kick Smoking Habit

Caribbean crustacean named for Bob Marley

Caribbean crustacean named for Bob Marley - The late Jamaican musician Bob Marley has joined the "I have a species named after me" club, as a parasitic crustacean has been donned Gnathia marleyi, researchers announced today (July 10).

This blood feeder infests certain fish that live among the coral reefs of the shallow eastern Caribbean Sea.

A close-up of an adult male gnathiid. Adult males look entirely different than juveniles and are used by taxonomists to identify species. (John Artim, Department of Biology, Arkansas State University)

"I named this species, which is truly a natural wonder, after Marley because of my respect and admiration for Marley's music," Paul Sikkel, an assistant professor of marine ecology at Arkansas State University, said in a statement. "Plus, this species is as uniquely Caribbean as was Marley."

Marley now belongs to a club that includes President Barack Obama, whose name inspired Caloplaca obamae, the moniker for a lichen growing on Santa Rosa island in California. Late-night comedian Stephen Colbert has two insects named for him, while Mick Jagger's name was given to an extinct trilobite, Aegrotocatellus Jaggeri. Even singer Beyoncé is a card-carrying member, with a species of horse fly with a golden rear now named Scaptia (Plinthina) beyonceae.

Juvenile gnathid isopods hide within coral rubble or algae so they can launch surprise attacks on fish, and then infest them. As adults, the parasites don't eat. "We believe that adults subsist for two to three weeks on the last feedings they had as juveniles and then die, hopefully after they have reproduced," Sikkel said in a statement.

With reports suggesting coral reef communities in the Caribbean are declining due to diseases, Sikkel's team is examining whether there's a link between reef health and gnathid populations. G. marleyi, like other gnathids, is similar to blood-sucking ticks or mosquitoes.

And like the land-lubbing ticks, gnathids are responsible for many diseases, in thise case those afflicting coral-reef fish, the researchers said. "We suspect that coral degradation leads to more available habitat for external parasites to 'launch attacks' on host fishes," he said. "And as the number of potential host fish decreases, each remaining host will become more heavily parasitized."

Sikkel first discovered the newly identified gnathid about 10 years ago in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where it was so common he assumed it had been described. Not so, according to Nico J. Smit of North-West University in South Africa, who later examined a specimen of the species. Next, the research team raised the organism from its juvenile stage through adulthood.

Sikkel and his team describe all of G. marleyi's life stages in the June 6 issue of the journal Zootaxia. ( LiveScience.com )

READ MORE - Caribbean crustacean named for Bob Marley

Philippine croc is largest in captivity

Philippine croc is largest in captivity — Guinness World Records has declared that a huge crocodile blamed for deadly attacks in the southern Philippines is the largest in captivity in the world. The giant reptile has brought pride, fear, tourism revenues and attention to the remote town where it was captured.

The saltwater crocodile named Lolong, which was captured last September in Bunawan town in Agusan del Sur province, measures 20.24 feet (6.17 meters) and weighs more than a ton, Guinness spokeswoman Anne-Lise Rouse said in a statement seen Sunday. The reptile took the top spot from an Australian crocodile which measured more than 17 feet (5 meters) and weighed nearly a ton.

FILE - In this Sunday, Sept. 4, 2011 file photo, a Philippine National Police officer stands next to a giant saltwater crocodile which was captured by residents and crocodile farm staff along a creek in Bunawan town, Agusan Del Sur province, southern Philippines. Guinness World Records has declared Sunday, July 1, 2012 that the huge crocodile blamed for deadly attacks is the largest in captivity in the world. Guinness spokeswoman Anne-Lise Rouse says the saltwater crocodile nicknamed "Lolong" measured 6.17 meters (20.24 feet) and weighed more than a ton. (AP Photo/File)

Bunawan Mayor Edwin Cox Elorde said the news sparked celebrations in his farming town of 37,000 but also fostered concerns that more giant crocodiles might be lurking in a nearby marshland and creek where villagers fish.

"There were mixed feelings," Elorde said by telephone. "We're really proud because it proves the rich biodiversity of our place but at the same time, there are fears that Lolong may not be alone."

Lolong has become the star attraction of a new ecotourism park and research center in the outskirts of Bunawan and has drawn thousands of tourists since news of its capture spread. Elorde said his town has earned 3 million pesos ($72,000) from the modest entrance fees at the park, with most of the money being used to feed and care for the crocodile and for park maintenance.

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon Paje welcomed the Guinness announcement and the growing attention being given to the crocodile, saying it would help people realize the biodiversity of their surroundings and the need to protect it. He said he would recommend that the government help Bunawan become an ecotourism destination.

The crocodile was captured with steel cable traps during a three-week hunt after a child was killed in 2009 and a fisherman went missing. Water buffalos have also been attacked by crocodiles in the area, officials said.

About 100 people led by Elorde pulled the crocodile from a creek using a rope and then hoisted it by crane onto a truck. It was named after a government environmental officer who died from a heart attack after traveling to Bunawan to help capture the beast, Elorde said.

Elorde said he saw a bigger crocodile escape when Lolong was captured and villagers remain wary of fishing there at night. He said he has formed a new team of hunters and is seeking government permission to start hunting that crocodile. ( Associated Press )

READ MORE - Philippine croc is largest in captivity

Japan zoo says missing squirrel numbers no mystery

Japan zoo says missing squirrel numbers no mystery - A Japanese zoo that seemingly caught more squirrels than it lost denied any mystery behind the mismatch Friday, saying it did not know how many animals it had because they "keep reproducing".

Tokyo's Inokashira Park Zoo originally said about 30 of the bushy-tailed rodents had made a break for it when a typhoon brought a tree down on their enclosure.

A squirrel holds a nut at the Inokashira Park Zoo in Tokyo. Japanese zookeepers who lost 30 squirrels after a typhoon damaged their enclosure said on June 28, their recovery efforts had exceeded expectations with 38 animals back in captivity and denied any mathematical mystery behind the number of squirrels fleeing and being recaptured

A week later keepers announced they had recaptured 38 animals and were continuing to receive up to five sightings a day, prompting speculation that wild squirrels were among their number.

But on Friday, zoo official Hiroshi Mashima said it was likely the number of runaway rodents had been higher than originally thought.

"We say more than 40 squirrels must have gotten away in the first place," said Mashima, a zoo educator specialising in animal biology. "There are no wild squirrels inhabiting this area. That is for sure."

Mashima said it was not possible to be precise because detailed records of the number of squirrels kept in the enclosure were not available.

The zoo does not know exactly how many squirrels it has "because they are difficult to catch and they keep reproducing", he said. ( AFP)

READ MORE - Japan zoo says missing squirrel numbers no mystery

Rogue Dolphin, Alone After Katrina, Menaces Lake Area

Rogue Dolphin, Alone After Katrina, Menaces Lake Area - A menacing animal is terrorizing residents of an upscale waterfront community just outside New Orleans. But it's not your run-of-the-mill beastly wild animal. Instead, it's a sweet-faced bottle-nosed dolphin and hospital officials say he's already taken a bite out of three people who have entered the waters of Lake Pontchartrain in Slidell, La.

Second in size to the great Salt Lake in Utah, Lake Pontchartrain is home to many wild animals. The Slidell Dolphin, as the juvenile male is known, made the body of water his home just after Katrina when a small pod made their way into the lake. The pod eventually left--leaving the lone dolphin to fend for himself.

Residents in the community of Lakeshore Estates say they are not only concerned for one another, they are concerned about the animal's safety as well. "Somebody's going to get bitten by this dolphin, they are going to get mad and they are going to shoot the dolphin," one unidentified resident told ABC affiliate WGNO.

Members of the Louisiana Fish and Wildlife held a community meeting earlier this week, brining in experts from NOAA to help determine the dolphin's future and advise residents on ways to avoid the aggressive mammal.

The basic concept includes abiding by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which prohibits giving food to many wild animals including dolphins.

Stacey Horstman, bottlenose dolphin conservation coordinator for NOAA Fisheries Service, told ABC News she spent two days observing the aggressive dolphin--who appeared to have a few injuries related to its proximity to humans--such as a healing cut from a sharp fish hook.

"Fishing gear and boat-related injuries are common for wild dolphins that have lost their natural wariness to people and boats because of our interactions with them," says Hortsman. "We observed people encircling and corralling the dolphin with their jet-skis and boats. They were also reaching out to grab his fins and flippers and otherwise touch and pet him with their hands and objects."

It's this interaction that makes the male dolphin lose his natural weariness to humans, "The dolphin is showing normal male dominance behavior. However, these behaviors are misdirected at people and boats because of people interacting with him."

Unlike water park attractions, Hortsman advises that it's not safe to pet or lure the creature. "The most important thing to do is to avoid seeking out the dolphin to play or swim with it. If you are recreationally swimming in the canal, stay close to the water's edge to avoid swimming in the middle of the canal where the dolphin tends to swim. If you see the dolphin, leave the water as quickly as possible to avoid any potential interactions."

This is not the first time animals synonymous with being cute and lovely have gone rogue. In April, 37-year-old Anthony Hensley drowned after being attacked by a swan. The father of two worked for a company that used the natural beauties to keep geese from a local neighborhood. While patrolling a local lake on his kayak, police believe Hensley got too close to the swan's nesting area and was attacked. He rolled off his kayak and drowned while the feathery bird continued to attack him.

For now, NOAA has no plans to remove the Slidell dolphin, something residents are split on. "He's my neighbor," one local man tells WGNO. Another resident tells the station, "He's not in a natural environment. Maybe they should find him a girlfriend."

"The most effective and safe solution for the dolphin and people is to change our human behaviors that have created his behaviors," says Hortsman. "Therefore, we currently don't plan to move the dolphin for this reason and because research also shows that relocating animals is not an effective or long-term solution." ( Good Morning America )

READ MORE - Rogue Dolphin, Alone After Katrina, Menaces Lake Area

What was he thinking? Study turns to ape intellect

What was he thinking? Study turns to ape intellect — The more we study animals, the less special we seem.

Baboons can distinguish between written words and gibberish. Monkeys seem to be able to do multiplication. Apes can delay instant gratification longer than a human child can. They plan ahead. They make war and peace. They show empathy. They share.

"It's not a question of whether they think — it's how they think," says Duke University scientist Brian Hare. Now scientists wonder if apes are capable of thinking about what other apes are thinking.

The evidence that animals are more intelligent and more social than we thought seems to grow each year, especially when it comes to primates. It's an increasingly hot scientific field with the number of ape and monkey cognition studies doubling in recent years, often with better technology and neuroscience paving the way to unusual discoveries.

FILE - In this Feb. 21, 2012 file photo, after being told a word, an orangutan points to that object on an iPad computer tablet at Jungle Island zoo in Miami. The evidence that animals are more intelligent and more social than we thought seems to grow each year, especially when it comes to primates. It's an increasingly hot scientific field with the number of ape and monkey cognition studies doubling in recent years, often with better technology and neuroscience paving the way to unusual discoveries. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter, File)

This month scientists mapping the DNA of the bonobo ape found that, like the chimp, bonobos are only 1.3 percent different from humans.

Says Josep Call, director of the primate research center at the Max Planck Institute in Germany: "Every year we discover things that we thought they could not do."

Call says one of his recent more surprising studies showed that apes can set goals and follow through with them.

Orangutans and bonobos in a zoo were offered eight possible tools — two of which would help them get at some food. At times when they chose the proper tool, researchers moved the apes to a different area before they could get the food, and then kept them waiting as much as 14 hours. In nearly every case, when the apes realized they were being moved, they took their tool with them so they could use it to get food the next day, remembering that even after sleeping. The goal and series of tasks didn't leave the apes' minds.

Call says this is similar to a person packing luggage a day before a trip: "For humans it's such a central ability, it's so important."

For a few years, scientists have watched chimpanzees in zoos collect and store rocks as weapons for later use. In May, a study found they even add deception to the mix. They created haystacks to conceal their stash of stones from opponents, just like nations do with bombs.

Hare points to studies where competing chimpanzees enter an arena where one bit of food is hidden from view for only one chimp. The chimp that can see the hidden food, quickly learns that his foe can't see it and uses that to his advantage, displaying the ability to perceive another ape's situation. That's a trait humans develop as toddlers, but something we thought other animals never got, Hare said.

And then there is the amazing monkey memory.

At the National Zoo in Washington, humans who try to match their recall skills with an orangutan's are humbled. Zoo associate director Don Moore says: "I've got a Ph.D., for God's sake, you would think I could out-think an orang and I can't."

In French research, at least two baboons kept memorizing so many pictures — several thousand — that after three years researchers ran out of time before the baboons reached their limit. Researcher Joel Fagot at the French National Center for Scientific Research figured they could memorize at least 10,000 and probably more.

And a chimp in Japan named Ayumu who sees strings of numbers flash on a screen for a split-second regularly beats humans at accurately duplicating the lineup. He's a YouTube sensation, along with orangutans in a Miami zoo that use iPads.

It's not just primates that demonstrate surprising abilities.

Dolphins, whose brains are 25 percent heavier than humans, recognize themselves in a mirror. So do elephants. A study in June finds that black bears can do primitive counting, something even pigeons have done, by putting two dots before five, or 10 before 20 in one experiment.

The trend in research is to identify some new thinking skill that chimps can do, revealing that certain abilities are "not uniquely human," said Emory University primatologist Frans de Waal. Then the scientists find that same ability in other primates further removed from humans genetically. Then they see it in dogs and elephants.

"Capacities that we think in humans are very special and complex are probably not so special and not so complex," de Waal said. "This research in animals elevates the animals, but it also brings down the humans.... If monkeys can do it and maybe dogs and other animals, maybe it's not as complex as you think."

At Duke, professor Elizabeth Brannon shows videos of monkeys that appear to be doing a "fuzzy representation" of multiplication by following the number of dots that go into a box on a computer screen and choosing the right answer to come out of the box. This is after they've already done addition and subtraction.

This spring in France, researchers showed that six baboons could distinguish between fake and real four-letter words — BRRU vs KITE, for example. And they chose to do these computer-based exercises of their own free will, either for fun or a snack.

It was once thought the control of emotions and the ability to empathize and socialize separated us from our primate cousins. But chimps console, and fight, each other. They also try to soothe an upset companion, grooming and putting their arms around him.

"I see plenty of empathy in my chimpanzees," de Waal said. But studies have shown they also go to war against neighboring colonies, killing the males and taking the females. That's something that also is very human and led people to believe that war-making must go back in our lineage 6 million years, de Waal said.

When scientists look at our other closest relative, the bonobo, they see a difference. Bonobos don't kill. Hare says his experiments show bonobos give food to newcomer bonobos, even when they could choose to keep all the food themselves.

One reason scientists are learning more about animal intellect is computers, including touch screens. In some cases, scientists are setting up banks of computers available to primates 24-7. In the French word recognition experiment, Fagot found he got more and better data when it was the baboons' choice to work.

Animal cognition researcher Steve Ross at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago agrees.

"The apes in our case seem to be working better when they have that control, that choice to perform," he said.

Brain scans on monkeys and apes also have helped correct mistaken views about ape brain power. It was once thought the prefrontal cortex, the area in charge of higher reasoning, was disproportionately larger than the rest of the brain only in humans, giving us a cognitive advantage, Hare said. But imaging shows that monkey and ape prefrontal cortexes have that same larger scale, he said.

What's different is that the human communication system in the prefrontal cortex is more complex, Hare said.

So there are limits to what non-human primates can do. Animals don't have the ability to communicate with the complexity of human language. In the French study, the baboons can recognize that the letters KITE make a word because through trial and error they learn which letters tend to go together in what order. But the baboons don't have a clue of what KITE means. It's that gap that's key. "The boundaries are not as sharp as people think, but there are certain things you can't overcome and language is one of them," said Columbia University animal cognition researcher Herbert Terrace.

And that leads to another difference, Ross said. Because apes lack language skills, they learn by watching and mimicking. Humans teach with language and explanation, which is faster and better, Ross said.

Some of the shifts in scientific understanding of animals are leading to ethical debates. When Emory University researcher Lori Marino in 2001 co-wrote a groundbreaking study on dolphins recognizing themselves in mirrors, proving they have a sense of self similar to humans, she had a revelation.

"The more you learn about them, the more you realize that they do have the capacity and characteristics that we think of as a person," Marino said. "I think it's impossible to ignore the ethical implications of these kinds of findings."

After the two dolphins she studied died when transferred to another aquarium, she decided never to work on captive dolphins again. She then became a science adviser to the Nonhuman Rights Project, which seeks legal rights or status for animals. The idea, Marino said, is to get animals such as dolphins "to be deemed a person, not property."

The intelligence of primates was one of the factors behind a report last year by the Institute of Medicine that said the National Institutes of Health should reduce dramatically the number of chimpanzees it uses in biomedical research.

The NIH is working on new guidelines that would further limit federal medical chimpanzee use down from its current few dozen chimps at any given time, said NIH program planning chief James Anderson. Chimps are a special case, with their use "very, very limited," he said. But he raises the question: "What happens if your child is sick or your mother is dying" and animal research might lead to a cure?

The issue is more about animal welfare and giving them the right "not to be killed, not to be tortured, not to be confined unnecessarily" than giving them legal standing, said David DeGrazia, a philosophy and ethics professor at George Washington University.

Hare says that focusing on animal rights ignores the problem of treatment of chimps in research settings. He contends that for behavioral studies and even for many medical research tests they could be kept in zoos or sanctuaries rather than labs.

Animals performing tasks in near-natural habitats "is like an Ivy League college" for the apes, Hare said. "We're going to see them do stunning and sophisticated things." ( Associated Press )

READ MORE - What was he thinking? Study turns to ape intellect