Video: Turtles' Underwater High Five

Last week we discovered beluga whales say hello by waving and blowing bubbles. Now it's the turn of sea turtles to show us their underwater greeting. And if this YouTube video is anything to go by, the shelled ones apparently do it with a 'high five' style flipper slap. In the 35 second clip, which is sure to go viral, two turtles can be seen gracefully swimming towards each before both extending a flipper. The pair then give a perfectly timed high five before spinning around and continuing to swim together.

http://tinyurl.com/6teot4e 

Video: Elvis The Crotchety Croc Steals Unsuspecting Lawnmower

Two workers at a reptile park near Sydney, Australia had a narrow escape after a 16 foot, half-ton crocodile named Elvis suddenly lunged at them, making off with their lawnmower and successfully dragging the unsuspecting lawnmower down to his watery lair.  This sort of unruly behavior is not new to Elvis, who apparently has a long record of crocodile conduct unbecoming, in that he has already eaten two girlfriends at another crocodile park where he lived.  According to the Daily Mail, Billy Collett, the employee who was handling the lawn mower, told reporters that it happened very quickly, and that his heart almost jumped out of his chest.“We’d just started mowing, the croc’s sitting about five foot away from me in the water, then [the] next second he’s attached to the end of the mower, dragging it in, and almost taking me into the drink with him," he said.

http://tinyurl.com/6q4laf6

Donor Gives $1.5 Million For No-kill Animal Shelter In Detroit

An anonymous California donor has given a fledgling animal rescue organization in Detroit a $1.5 million gift toward building the city's first no-kill shelter, rescue officials said today.  Detroit Dog Rescue, founded nine months ago by filmmaker Monica Martino and hip-hop artist Daniel (Hush) Carlisle, received the gift in the form of stock options last Thursday from the woman, who was moved by a on-air news segment showcasing their work in finding and rehabilitating some of Detroit's thousands of stray dogs.

http://tinyurl.com/7tbyjab

Video: Tearjerker Alert: Former Lab Beagles See The Sun For The First Time

Dog videos never fail to conjure up some sort of emotion. And this one really brings the waterworks. The video footage shows male beagles that were rescued from a California university animal testing lab seeing sunlight and stepping on grass for the first time.  The rescue mission, which happened in June, was recently followed by a much larger one from a lab in Spain. The group that undertook the cause, Animal Rescue Media Education (ARME), rescued a total of 72 dogs in the most recent effort, 32 of them having already been adopted in Europe, according to NBC Los Angeles.

http://tinyurl.com/ctbmg2k

Rare Asian Bird Takes "Wrong Turn," Lands In Tennessee

A rare Asian hooded crane, normally seen only in Southeast Asia, China and Japan, apparently "took a wrong turn" and has joined sandhill cranes wintering at the Hiwassee Refuge in southeast Tennessee, bird experts say, drawing flocks of curious birdwatchers along with it. "It's a great thrill," said Melinda Welton, conservation chair for the Tennessee Ornithological Societyand a bird migration researcher. "People are coming in from all over the country to see this bird."

http://tinyurl.com/cpv8yl6

Video: Red Panda Found In House

Okay, seriously now, what is with animals these days? First a baby seal waddles its way out of a bay in New Zealand, through a cat door, into a house,and takes a nap on a couch.  Then, a New Jersey cable guy finds a 500-pound bear snoozing in the basement of a customer's house.  Now, a woman in China reportedly came home to find an adorable red panda hanging out in the corner inside her house.  According to ITN News, the curious little panda has since been released back into the wild, but not before a fortunate few were able to visit and take photos.

http://tinyurl.com/7ggzwa5

The New Face Of Pet Therapy

The practice, once limited to nursing homes, is aiding people, young and old, with a range of ills. No doubt about it. People have a deep and complex relationship with animals, which elicit a wide range of emotional responses by their very presence and interactions with human beings.  But these days, animals are being involved in human therapy in innovative ways that depart drastically from traditional notions of animal-assisted therapy.  "Most people think of nursing homes, and people going in to cheer up the elderly," said Bill Kueser, vice president of marketing for the Delta Society, a nonprofit group that promotes animal-assisted therapy. "It's really become much more than that."  Animals have become part of many types of psychotherapy, physical therapy and crisis response, Kueser said. And it's not simply using a therapy dog to calm or soothe a person, either, he said.

http://tinyurl.com/7bejtm2

Rare Malaysian Rhino Gets New Mate To Save Species

Malaysian wildlife authorities said they have captured a female Borneo Sumatran rhino who will be paired with a new mate in a breeding program meant to save their species from extinction.

The plan is the cornerstone of efforts to preserve the bristly, snub-nosed animal, whose numbers have fallen to fewer than 40 in the jungles of Borneo island.  Officials have spent more than three years seeking a suitable mate for a middle-aged male rhino named "Tam," who was rescued in Malaysia's eastern Sabah state in 2008 while wandering in an oil palm plantation with an infected leg likely caused by a poacher trap.

http://tinyurl.com/6ue8x59

Blind Dog, Lost Last Month And Thought Dead, Makes It Back To San Antonio Family For Christmas

SAN ANTONIO — A blind dog that was lost and believed to be dead is reunited with his San Antonio family for Christmas, thanks to Craigslist, a school teacher and an animal care agency.  Nearly a month after Stevie Oedipus Wonder disappeared — and was reported dead — the cairn terrier mix puppy is home for the holiday, the San Antonio Express-News reported Saturday.  “This is my Christmas miracle,” Stevie’s owner Belinda Gutierrez said. “I actually thought I was going to have a sad end of the year and a sad Christmas.

http://tinyurl.com/7a5k7z5

Photos: Rare Wild Animal Searches Of 2011 On Google Zeitgeist List

Each year, Google releases its Zeitgeist review of the most popular and fastest rising search terms of the year. Analyzing the world's queries, Google is able to show which people, places and things represent the "spirit of the time" for 2011. One of the Zeitgeist lists is of the fastest rising searches for "rare wild animals" in 2011. Ranging from the intimidating Komodo dragon to the majestic bald eagle, a number of amazing creatures were searched this year.  See if any of the animals you searched for made the top 10, and vote for your favorites.

http://tinyurl.com/6qo986p

Video: New Zealand Oil Spill: Rescued Little Penguins Released Into Wild

More little penguins tasted freedom last week after they were cleaned of oil from this year's spill in New Zealand.  The October spill, which was caused by a grounded cargo ship, left over two thousand oil-covered birds dead and hundreds in rescuers' hands. In late November, 49 penguins rescued from the spill were returned to the wild.  In the video, one rescuer told the BBC that although some birds are still undergoing rehabilitation, these are the last of the birds from the Mount Maunganui area to be released. He said, "This is a huge relief to our whole team, to get these birds back out again."

http://tinyurl.com/7c28pg2

Video: Cat Rides Under Car Hood, Survives 200 Mile Journey In Ohio

MEDINA, Ohio -- A cat has survived a four-hour, 200-mile ride under the hood of a car traveling through Ohio.  The cat was taken to an animal hospital in nearby Lodi where Dr. Linda Randall said he was going to be fine.

http://tinyurl.com/6mjzypd

National Zoo gets $4.5 million for panda breeding

WASHINGTON – The National Zoo announced a $4.5 million gift Monday to fund its giant panda reproduction program for five more years.  Philanthropist David M. Rubenstein visited the pandas with China's ambassador to the United States to announce the gift.  "There are probably 10 million species on the face of the earth, and I doubt that any one of those species is more popular and more beloved than the giant panda," Rubenstein said at a news conference by the zoo's giant panda yard. He said the money is a holiday gift to the people of Washington and to the country because pandas make people happy.

http://tinyurl.com/78f59bh

Video: Jingle Barks: It's Dogs Barking 'Jingle Bells'. Hilariously.

Yes, we know it's an advert. Yes, we know it's trying to sell us dog food.  But... we don't own a dog, so we're not likely to buy dog food. And if this YouTube video makes us go out and buy a dog so we can then feed it the dog food it's promoting, well... it's a bloody good advert.

http://tinyurl.com/d5483ta

Video: Giant Pandas Play In Snow At Chinese Nature Reserve

There's nothing more adorable than a panda frolicking in the snow. Except, of course, two pandas. In this incredibly cute video, two giant pandas climb, eat and show off their gymnastics moves in a nature reserve at Nanshan Park in Yantai, Shandong Province, China.

http://tinyurl.com/7sbvv3p

Video: 'Talking' Porcupine Wishes You A Merry Christmas

Teddy Bear is a ridiculously cute porcupine who shot to internet fame after the worldrealized just how much he enjoys eating corn and pumpkin.  And now the spiky one from Zooniversity, a teaching zoo in Texas, would like to wish his fans a Merry Christmas in his latest YouTube video.


http://tinyurl.com/7cyuowu

Video: Baby Seal Enters House, Sleeps On Couch

New Zealander Annette Swoffer got the surprise of her life when she found a baby seal in her kitchen, who later began to snooze on her couch, the New Zealand Herald reports.

http://tinyurl.com/7j5rs7b

Puppy Comes Back To Life After Car Accident

The McKinlay family was devastated when their family dog Scamp escaped through a fence and got hit by a car on Dec. 3. But the 8-month-old Yorkshire Terrier Shih Tzu puppy surprised his owners the next morning when he was not only awake, but sitting up.

http://tinyurl.com/7jvt4om

Holiday Gift Ideas for Animal Lovers

This year’s holiday gift guide gave you all some great ideas for gifts for pets, pet lovers and more. But what about gifts for those little kids (or kids at heart) who just love animals?

http://tinyurl.com/73w7vbl

New Questions About Animal Empathy

The emotions of rats and mice and the mental infrastructure behind them promise to illuminate the nature of human emotions, including empathy and nurturance, a Washington State University neuroscientist writes in a recent issue of the journal Science.

http://tinyurl.com/d5mvq4b

NYC Puppy Survives Fourth Floor Fall

A dog had a miraculous escape after leaping off a roof and falling 50 feet on to a ledge at an apartment block. Kai, a two-year-old Shiba Inu, bounded over the side of the roof garden after his owner Tracy Aron took him up for his morning exercise.

http://tinyurl.com/79hecrq

Stray Cat Inherits $13 Million Fortune

A 4-year-old stray cat that was rescued from the streets of Rome has inherited a $13 million fortune from its owner, the wealthy widow of an Italian property tycoon.

http://tinyurl.com/bv6dbua

Study Shows Animals Know More Than We Think

"Rats often make judgments and behave as if they're rational creatures," said UCLA associate professor of psychology Aaron Blaisdell, a member of UCLA's Brain Research Institute and senior author of a new study published in the December issue of the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.

http://tinyurl.com/cf36x39

Video: Pigs Escape on Chinese Highway

A group of pigs created may-ham in China recently after they escaped from a flipped lorry. The police made a pig's-ear of the recovery attempt after the incident in China's Sichuan Province.

http://tinyurl.com/78hcluh

Dog People vs. Cat People: The Surprising Differences

Hunch.com recently polled more than 200,000 pet owners to find out if they were dog people or cat people. The site then crossed those responses with lifestyle surveys and arrived at the following conclusions. Anything sound familiar?

http://tinyurl.com/d7td9y8

Video: Dog Lost 8 Years Ago Found 3,000 Miles Away

A Virginia family may have their long-lost dog back in time for the holidays after a terrier found nearly 3,000 miles away in rural Yuba County was traced back to them.

http://tinyurl.com/6ohq8gf

Dog Shoots Hapless Duck Hunter in Butt

Animal attacks are a reality of life, but a sharp-shooting hound has taken his role as a gun dog to a whole new level. A Brigham City, Utah man is now the butt of jokes everywhere thanks to his dog.

http://tinyurl.com/7jf9q7t

Video: Great White Shark Spotted in North Carolina

The North Carolina coast may not be the first place you would expect to see a great white shark, but it does happen. Matt Garrett, a Boston, Massachusetts resident, and a group of friends went fishing over Thanksgiving weekend and caught the encounter on video.

http://tinyurl.com/blr88y4

Zebras Roam Virginia Neighborhood

It's one thing to see dogs, cats and squirrels around neighborhoods. But imagine the surprise when Loudoun County homeowners spotted zebras roaming their streets.

http://tinyurl.com/6rmttq5