Zoo Welcomes Trio of Cubs
Peekaboo! Can you spot the clouded leopard cubs triplets in this pile of animals?
Meet the playful babiesReptiles (7)
Credit: Mossy Tortoise, Etsy
Don’t you just hate it when your tortoise gets lost in the yard? Fortunately, Etsy crochet pro Katie Bradley has a solution.
Her adorable tortoise yard finder fits snugly around your shelled buddy’s midsection, so it’s easy to find him as he enjoys a nice stroll in the grass. It’s much more chic than ordinary blue tape or other common tortoise markers, and it’s slightly stretchy to accommodate growing turtles.
(Tortoise yard finders are for outdoor fun only, and should not be used near basking lamps or on aquatic turtles.)
Bradley approaches her work with charity in mind —10 percent of all her Etsy shop sales are donated to International Reptile Rescue, so be sure to pick up a few!
Julie Larsen Maher © WCS
The Bronx Zoo is celebrating five new additions to its turtle family: a quintet of Chinese yellow-headed box turtles.
With fewer than 150 of this kind of turtle left in the wild, this species is one of the 25 most endangered turtles in the world, according to the zoo. The Chinese yellow-headed box turtle once thrived in the Anhui Province of eastern China, but pollution, habitat loss and use in traditional medicine have endangered its population.
The hatching of these turtles is part of a larger effort by the Wildlife Conservation Society to save some of the globe's critically endangered turtle species. The program breeds certain species of turtles, reintroducing some back into the wild, and keeping others at the zoo to maintain genetic diversity.
“The success we are seeing in the early stages of this program is encouraging,” said Jim Breheny, WCS Executive Vice President of Zoos and Aquarium and Bronx Zoo Director, in a media release. “Over time, we hope to expand our turtle propagation work to extend to many of the most endangered species of turtles and tortoises."
When we first fell in love with this amazing video last week, we didn't think it could get any better. But it did.
This adorable clip of 9-month-old Eastern Box Turtle slooooowly snacking on a raspberry has taken the Internet by storm. Now the video's creators have gone back and added epic music to the already fantastic video of little Peanut's snack time. You can see the original here, but we definitely recommend watching the one with music.
Slow and steady, Peanut!
Courtesy of Reptilienzoo HAPP
After being together for over a century, giant turtles Bibi and Poldi are breaking up.
Bibi and Poldi are calling it quits after 115 years — and their split doesn't sound amicable.
Not only does the giant turtle pair refuse to share the same cage at Reptilienzoo HAPP in Klagenfurt, Austria, but Bibi took a chunk out of her partner’s shell and repeatedly attacked him until zoo officials finally separated them, reports the Austrian Times.
Bibi is definitely the one calling the shots in this relationship. She's the one who's instigating the fights, and she's the one who wants the cage to herself. (Who knows, next she may ask for sole custody of the great-great grandkids!)
Still, since the dueling divorcees have known each other since 1897, the zoo is hoping that this is just a little rough patch — the kind that can happen to a couple every hundred years or so. To help them rekindle the flame, concerned staffers have offered up aphrodisiacs and interactive games, reports the Austrian Times, but it's not working.
“We hope that they might find their harmony again,” Zookeeper Helga Happ said.
We don't know what Poldi did to incur the wrath of Bibi but maybe after a century, it's time to move on.
If you miss Steve Irwin's wild adventures as much as we do, you're in luck. The Crocodile Hunter's two kids, 13-year-old Bindi and 8-year-old Robert, are carrying on his wildlife conservation and education work. The kids just premiered a web series on YouTube called Growing Up Wild. You can watch the first webisode below.
You're probably pretty familiar with service dogs. But did you know that many other species are being used to help people with all kinds of disabilities and issues?
While the Americans with Disabilities Act only recognizes dogs and miniature horses as service animals, that doesn't stop these people in need from getting support from their preferred working animal.
Sophie: The Helper Monkey
The story of Judy Zappia and her service animal, a capuchin monkey named Sophie, will likely leave you with tears in your eyes. After leading a very active life Judy was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and is now wheelchair bound. Her husband George is her full-time caregiver, but Judy needed help with day-to-day tasks like picking up the phone.
Judy lives in Vermont where monkeys are allowed to be trained as service animals under limited circumstances. She worked with Helping Hands, a non-profit organization in Boston that breeds and trains small capuchin monkeys to work as service animals for patients with limited mobility.
Solent News / Rex Features
You could stick all four of these tortoise babies in your change purse and have plenty of room for more! The week-old Egyptian tortoises, born at Marwell Wildlife in the U.K., are no bigger than a twenty-pence coin -- that's less than an inch.
The first little guy to hatch weighed less than an ounce and he won't get too much bigger. By the time the hatchlings are adults, they could weigh up to one pound and measure six inches long.
