Animals Think, Therefore

In 1992, at Tangalooma, off the coast of Queensland, people began to throw fish into the water for the local wild dolphins to eat. In 1998, the dolphins began to feed the humans, throwing fish up onto the jetty for them. The humans thought they were having a bit of fun feeding the animals. What, if anything, did the dolphins think?
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Animals Find Forever Homes This Holiday

There are millions of loving and healthy cats and dogs sitting in shelters that are in need of a “forever home” or simply just a family to belong to. The Tri-County Animal Shelter recently announced its holiday promotions, which began Dec. 1 with a “Home 4 The Holidays” event and will finish off the month with a big holiday party Dec. 19.

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Wild Animals Endure Illness, Injury, and Starvation

Cecil the lion captured the world’s attention earlier this year when an American dentist hunted and killed him. People were justifiably outraged at this tragedy — so much so, in fact, that they turned against the entire practice of trophy hunting.Numerous airlines responded by banning the transport of a range of hunting trophies on their flights. In October, people were again infuriated when a German hunter shot a 40- to 60-year-old elephant in Zimbabwe. Although this hunt was legal, unlike Cecil’s, the unnecessary killing of wild animals continues to draw public outcry.

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‘Blessing Of The Animals’ Brings Creatures Of All Kinds

Some lucky animals were serenaded inside the Christ Church of Manhattan, as the Upper East Side parish celebrated their 7th annual “Blessing of the Animals” ceremony.  The event offers individual blessings to all kinds of pets, including dogs, bunnies, guinea pigs, farm animals and even NYPD horses.  “They need to feel that God loves them,” Cindy Adams, an organizer of the event, said.

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Dogs And Other Animals May Also Have Conscience

If you're a pet owner, it would not be surprising for you to know that your pet dog and other animals actually possess the aptitude of self-awareness.  Animals such as magpies, an Asian elephant, great apes, some ants and some dolphins have all previously passed the "mirror test" in which they recognize themselves apart from another object reflected in a mirror.

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China Outcry Shows Changing Attitudes To Animals

Public outrage in China over photographs of laboratory dogs lying muzzled and abandoned on the roof of a medical school building spotlights changing attitudes to animal rights, animal welfare groups say. The pictures and video, taken by animal rights activists in the central city of Xi'an, went viral on social media platforms this week, sparking widespread revulsion at the treatment of the animals.

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Airports Staffed By Animals

Your next trip through airport security could be manned by mice.  Why not  Airports already employ dogs as therapists and llamas as bodyguards (yes, really).  In fact, animals hold a range of jobs in the travel industry.

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Tech Breakthroughs Are Giving Animals the Power to Speak

Imagine you're a diabetic and you use a service dog trained to alert you if it senses your blood sugar is falling. These dogs are incredibly useful, because diabetics can lapse into “hypoglycemia unawareness,” where they don’t notice their own oncoming symptoms. The canines do, and they intervene. But sometimes a diabetic shock can emerge so suddenly the human passes out. Then the dog’s in a quandary: How does it go for help? Because dogs can’t talk.

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Was Early Animal Evolution Co-Operative?

The fossil group called the Ediacaran biota have been troubling researchers for a long time. How do these peculiar organisms relate to modern organisms? In a new study, published in Biological Reviews, researchers from Sweden and Spain suggest the Ediacarans reveal previously unexplored pathways taken by animal evolution. They also propose a new way of looking at the effect the Ediacarans might have had on the evolution of other animals.

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Humans and Animals: A Complicated Bond

Jayanti Seiler is not shy about expressing her feelings for animals. But when she meets the subjects of her project “Of One and the Other,” she keeps those feelings to herself.  She has explored the contradictions of the human-animal relationship, photographing them at circuses, shelters and even taxidermists. She started with birds of prey but soon expanded to include other animals. Ms. Seiler, 38, has always been an animal lover, so after she volunteered at a Florida wildlife rehabilitation center, she was inspired to chronicle the complex relationships she witnessed.

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Animal Shelter Shares ‘Beautiful Images’ After All Are Adopted

A US animal shelter has celebrated the adoption of all of its resident animals by sharing images of their empty pens.  Photos from the Indiana centre show a vacant cat and kitten playpen and empty dog and puppy kennels.  The record 100 percent adoption rate was a first for Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control, according to its Facebook page.

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Animal Behavior Expert Says Understanding Animals' Emotions Is Key

You can tell when an animal is stressed: The whites of its eyes show, the tail swishes, the head is up and ears pinned back, and it defecates more. It may balk, bolt or lash out.  People who work with animals, whether as veterinarians, trainers, facility or livestock managers, need to understand animals’ emotional response if they want the best outcomes, Temple Grandin told students and faculty at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at a lunchtime lecture Tuesday. She is an internationally known designer of livestock facilities, professor of animal science at Colorado State University and autism activist.

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Animals Are Showing Up In Really Strange Places

In the spring of 2010, a lone grey whale was spotted off the Mediterranean coast of Israel, an event that sparked international interest for an important reason: It was the first North Atlantic sighting of a grey whale, a species nowadays restricted to the Pacific Ocean, in about 200 years.  The case is just one example in a recent spate of animals turning up in places they don't belong - generally, either Pacific species showing up in the Atlantic, or vice versa. Northern gannets, a North Atlantic species, have been spotted off the coast of California several times in recent years, for instance, while several Pacific species of auks, a type of diving bird, have recently been observed in the Atlantic.

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