What Are Animals Thinking?

The mind of an animal is a far richer, more complex thing than most people know — as a new TIME book reveals. Let’s be honest, you’d probably rather die than wake up tomorrow morning and find out you’d turned into an animal. Dying, after all, is inevitable, and there’s even a certain dignity to it: Shakespeare did it, Einstein did it, Galileo and Washington and Twain all did it. And you, someone who was born a human and will live your life as a human, will end your life that way too.

http://tinyurl.com/n2wg2o7

Hundreds of Dogs Saved From Massacre on Puerto Rico

When Stephen McGarva and wife Pamela decided to move to Puerto Rico because of her job, he jumped at the chance to ­explore the sun-soaked island.  On their first week in the lush resort community in Humacao in October 2005, McGarva — an artist, extreme-sports addict and professional free spirit — went exploring remote Playa Lucia beach for a killer wind gust.  “I noticed what I thought was a pile of coconut husks,” he told The Post. “When I got closer, I said, ‘Oh, my God, it’s a dog.’ ”

http://tinyurl.com/okycb8u

Best Place in the World to See Wildlife

When people ask me, “What’s the best place in the world to see wildlife?” I generally say, “Wherever you happen to be right now. Just look.” They nod politely. After a second they add, “OK, and if I want to travel?” The obvious possibilities come to mind—the rainforests of Costa Rica, Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park—along with a few quirkier ones, such as Los Llanos in Venezuela and the Himalayan foothills in Bhutan. In the end though, I always answer, “The Okavango Delta in Botswana.”

http://tinyurl.com/kkmauhj

Amazing Hero Puppy Saves Girl in Siberian Wilderness

Karina Chikitova is three and a half years old, and after 11 days of being lost in the Siberian wilderness with only her puppy, Kyrachaan, at her side, she was rescued. The little girl wandered away from her home in a remote village in the far reaches of eastern Russia, and because of miscommunication among family members, she wasn’t discovered to be missing until days later, The Siberian Times reports.

http://tinyurl.com/ncwncs8

Pet Friendly Dating Sites Match People with Pooches

On these dating sites, a passion for pets will help you find more than just puppy love.  Sites like PetsDating.com and YouMustLoveDogsDating.com have found a new niche as singles flock to computers and smartphones to find relationships, connecting dog owners to potential mates who enjoy long walks in the dog park and slobbery canine kisses as much as they do. Many of the sites encourage users to bring their dogs on first dates to break the ice or size up canine chemistry.

http://tinyurl.com/nrgyhrr

Humpback Whale Breaches Off New York City

There she blows!  A humpback whale, dubbed Jerry by researchers, showed that some summer tourists come by sea, as the magnificent creature surfaced off the coast of the Big Apple.  Jerry got a gorgeous glimpse of the Empire State Building, and surely must be heading to Broadway to take in a performance of “The Little Mermaid.”  Scientists describe Jerry’s behavior as spyhopping, a move that’s much like humans treading water and allows the massive marine mammals to take a look at their surroundings.
http://tinyurl.com/m7tr7fv

Bottlenose Dolphin Adopts Baby Orphan of a Different Species

Dolphin watchers discovered a rare occurrence recently off the New Zealand coast: A bottlenose dolphin adopted an abandoned common dolphin pup.  According to The New Zealand Herald, Kiwi made headlines five years ago when she lost her own baby, named Squirt, after getting stranded in a muddy inlet. Rescuers were able to return the mother to the ocean, but Squirt, which was nowhere to be found, was believed to have been eaten by an orca during the separation.

http://tinyurl.com/k47khcq

Stray Kitten Lands Role on Broadway

A stray kitten named Alfonso won a cat casting call on Monday, pouncing on a role in the upcoming Broadway revival of “You Can’t Take it With You.”  Director Scott Ellis picked Alfonso out of 14 auditioning kittens, all rescues provided by the Humane Society.  Alfonso’s role calls for him to sit on a desk and eat as actress Kristine Nielsen pounds away on a typewriter.  During the auditions at the New 42nd Street Studios — which were also attended by co-star Rose Byrne — the kitties were placed, one by one, on top of the stage desk.

http://tinyurl.com/kw45dyv

Cat Survives 12 Story Plunge In Manhattan

One cat is lucky to be alive after falling 12-stories at a Manhattan apartment building earlier this week.  Owner Samuel Jacobs said he panicked when he returned to his 15th floor apartment on East 32nd Street Tuesday and couldn’t find his 6-year-old cat Gizmo.

http://tinyurl.com/kh56y2n

Will SeaWorld’s Financial Woes Force It to Free Whales?

The business of owning and training captive killer whales in the United States just became a lot less profitable.  SeaWorld rocked the financial world and thrilled animal rights activists on Wednesday when its stock price dropped by 35 percent to a record low after the company announced that attendance at its water parks this year has fallen 4.3 percent.

http://tinyurl.com/pmzvgce

Robin Williams' Role as an Animal Advocate

Among the millions mourning the death of Robin Williams on Monday was Koko, a gorilla who communicates in sign language. Williams met Koko in 2001 at The Gorilla Foundation in Northern California, where the great ape managed to upstage the great comedic actor.  “Years later (on Aug. 11, 2014), Koko overheard Penny (Dr. Penny Patterson, Koko’s mentor and surrogate mother) talking on the phone about Robin, who had just passed away,” The Gorilla Foundation stated on its website. “She became extremely sad.”

http://tinyurl.com/pbsskce

17 Baby Elephants Learning How To Use Their Trunks

“What the heck is this thing on my face??”

http://tinyurl.com/kgrd27l

Video: Rescue of a Baby Elephant Separated From Mom

The baby pachyderm was only a few hours old when tribesmen in the Ndoto Mountains of Kenya found it with their cows. According to The Dodo, the herders realized that the infant—which still had its umbilical cord attached—got lost when a group of elephants got mixed up with the livestock. Instead of following its mother, the tiny elephant started trailing the cows.

http://tinyurl.com/n8rcfe7

Meet the World’s Newest Dolphin Species

Welcome the newest addition to the Flipper family, the Australian humpback dolphin.  The Australian humpback dolphin has been around for millennia. We just didn’t know it, as the species was lumped in with other humpback dolphins that roam the world’s oceans. But in a new study, scientists say they’ve solved a 300-year-old taxonomic riddle, declaring that the Down Under dolphin is a separate species from its African and Asian relatives.

http://tinyurl.com/o7hhx54

Bear Cub Escapes Massive Wildfire

Finding a bear in your driveway would scare most people. But recently, one Washington state resident had other concerns when he discovered a wild, furry visitor outside his home in Methow Valley, Wash.  The six-month-old cub was badly burned. “She was lying down, making pitiful whimpering noises,” homeowner Steve Love told KOMO News. “I got about six feet away, sat down and talked to it in a soothing way, telling it things would be OK. It seemed to make it feel better. It stopped making noises.”


http://tinyurl.com/phbdewq

Meet the World’s Newest Dolphin Species

Welcome the newest addition to the Flipper family, the Australian humpback dolphin.  The Australian humpback dolphin has been around for millennia. We just didn’t know it, as the species was lumped in with other humpback dolphins that roam the world’s oceans. But in a new study, scientists say they’ve solved a 300-year-old taxonomic riddle, declaring that the Down Under dolphin is a separate species from its African and Asian relatives.

http://tinyurl.com/puembu6

How to Save Swimmers Without Killing Sharks

It's that time of year when you’ll be inundated with all things shark, what with Sharknado 2 and "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel. And so scientists want to remind you that we can coexist with the landlord, as surfers refer to the ocean’s top predator.  “More humans are killed by toasters, cows, or vending machines than are killed by sharks, and heart disease kills about a million times as many people as sharks do,” David Shiffman, a shark scientist at the University of Miami, wrote in a commentary published Monday in the journal Animal Conservation. “Many commonly used ‘shark control’ strategies involve killing sharks with the goal of reducing the probability of a swimmer encountering a shark.”

http://tinyurl.com/k77n2c3

Video: Friendly Seal Hangs Out With Surfers

Surf's up, seals.  When something unknown touches your leg in the ocean, the worst possible scenario comes to mind. But when a gentle nudge grazed Andrew Flounders' foot while surfing in Northumberland, United Kingdom, it was just a playful seal that wanted to join in on the fun.

http://tinyurl.com/qesmykr

Cat Exercise Wheel Raises $250K On Kickstarter

 A lot of indoor cat owners must be feeling guilty about depriving their kitties of exercise, because a Kickstarter campaign raising funds for a cat exercise wheel has raised over $250,000.  One Fast Cat is a product that lets cats run on a stationary wheel. Creator Sean Farley based the concept of the cat wheel on his theory that being kept indoors suppresses a cats' natural desire to run and hunt. One Fast Cat is designed to help cats meet at least part of that need by expending energy.

http://tinyurl.com/lab9mgh

Lucifer the Lion Treated With Acupuncture

Veterinarian Nicki Grint usually performs acupuncture on dogs, but she’s been using the ancient Chinese practice to treat a bigger beast at the Paignton Zoo in Devon, England.  Lucifer, a 419-pound Asiatic lion, had a tumor removed from his right hind paw before he was recently transferred from the London Zoo to Paignton. (He was born in captivity at the U.K.’s Cotswold Wildlife Park in 2002.) His wound from the procedure wasn’t healing, so his keepers at the Devon facility took an unconventional approach.

http://tinyurl.com/p7p7o5d