There’s a cloud over the big top as the circus rolls into the Rose Garden this week.
A consortium of animal-rights and environmental groups are suing Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey in U.S. District Court, alleging that the circus illegally abuses animals protected under the endangered species act.
Click here for the full article.
addthis_url [...]
Continue reading about Life in the circus ain’t easy … for elephants?
Throughout history, elephants have been thought of as ‘different’. Shakespeare, and even Aristotle, described them as walking on inflexible column-like legs. And this myth persists even today. Which made John Hutchinson from The Royal Veterinary College, London, want to find out more about elephants and the way they move. Are they really that different from [...]
Continue reading about Elephant Legs Are Much Bendier Than Shakespeare Thought
An Asian elephant bests a science reporter at a simple counting game. Video courtesy of Naoko Irie/University of Tokyo
Elephants are famous for their supposedly superb memory. Now it seems that they are good at simple maths too.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo have found an Asian elephant named Ashya can add small quantities together [...]
Self-recognition, it has been argued, is a hallmark of advanced cognitive abilities in animals. It was previously thought that only the usual suspects of higher cognition—some great apes, dolphins, and elephants—were able to recognize their own bodies in a mirror.
Psychologist Helmut Prior and colleagues have shown evidence of self-recognition in magpies—a species with a brain [...]
Continue reading about Mirror Self-recognition In Magpie Birds
During the planet’s long history there have been several so-called “extinction events” when a large number species have perished.
[...] Now there is a growing consensus among scientists that a sixth extinction event has already begun with species disappearing at an unsurpassed rate.
It is possible that 1m species may not make it to the end of [...]
Continue reading about New book highlights animals facing extinction
A recent study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) suggests that old female elephants—and perhaps their memories of distant, life-sustaining sources of food and water—may be the key to survival during the worst of times.
In particular, experienced elephant matriarchs seem to give their family groups an edge in the [...]
Continue reading about Elephant Memories May Hold Key To Survival
African elephants are being slaughtered for their ivory at a pace unseen since an international ban on the ivory trade took effect in 1989. But the public outcry that resulted in that ban is absent today, and a University of Washington conservation biologist contends it is because the public seems to be unaware of the [...]
Continue reading about Ivory Poaching At Critical Levels: Elephants On Path To Extinction By 2020?
Protesters gathered in front of the Dallas Zoo this afternoon demanding the zoo move its lone elephant, Jenny, to a sanctuary rather than a zoo.
Concerned Citizens for Jenny organized the afternoon protest after zoo officials announced Jenny would be moved to the Africam Safari Park outside of Puebla, Mexico, in the fall.
Click [...]
Continue reading about Protesters demonstrate at Dallas Zoo over move of Jenny the elephant
Worries over the future of Thailand’ s famous elephants have emerged following an investigation by a University of Manchester team.
Professor Rosaleen Duffy and Dr Lorraine Moore from the University’ s School of Social Sciences say many problems have endured since the ending of the logging trade which employed virtually all Thai elephants in 1989.
The ban [...]
Continue reading about Uncertain Future For Elephants Of Thailand
A baby elephant was born at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium at 5:30 this morning. The female baby and the 25-year-old mother, Moja, are healthy and bonding well, zoo officials said.
It’s the second successful birth of an elephant at the zoo this month. On July 9, Savannah, another 25-year-old African elephant, gave birth to [...]
Continue reading about Zoo welcomes second baby elephant this month
