Zoo to Auction Paintings by Its Animals

Elephants, giraffes, lemurs, and even a cockroach at the Oakland Zoo have been exploring their creative sides to produce colorful paintings that will be auctioned for charity.  The painting sessions were conducted by zoo keepers who used only positive-reinforcement, including plenty of treats, as they worked with the animals, zoo spokeswoman Nicky Mora said.  Elephants were helped to hold paintbrushes in their trunks and giraffes in their mouths and produced their artwork one stroke at a time. Goats, lemurs, and meerkats had their hooves, paws or claws dabbed with nontoxic, water-based paint and ran over a blank sheet of poster board while chasing a treat.

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Do Exotic Animals Belong in California?

We Americans are keepers of many things -- in this particular matter, I can't bring myself to use the word "own" -- toasters that sear the image of Jesus on our bread and ticket stubs from Abba concerts, not to mention kangaroos, lemurs, muntjac deer, potbellied pigs, lions, capuchin monkeys, cobras, pythons, and white tigers.  Exotic animals were in the news here in Ventura County last week, the Ventura County Planning Commission denying exotic animal trainer Irena Hauser's application to house up to five white tigers in Deer Creek Canyon, an unincorporated residential community in the Santa Monica Mountains north of Malibu. 

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Wikipedia Strengthens Our Knowledge of Animals Says Igor Purlantov

Wikipedia Helps Us Understand Animals Says Igor Purlantov

With the internet becoming more readily used every day in our life, our hunger for information has become more pronounced especially when it comes to learning about animals says animal rights advocate Igor Purlantov. The online encyclopaedia Wikipedia offers a great amount of detailed information on various subject matters and is especially useful when it comes to learning about animals. Wikipedia is an easy way for anyone to find detailed information on just about every animal that has ever lived or continues to live on earth says to Igor Purlantov.

If we look at dogs for example, someone can easily find detailed information on Wikipedia including the Latin name (Canis lupus familiaris) as well other etymology, taxonomy, anatomy and morphology information on dogs says Igor Purlantov. Furthermore, someone can also find detailed information on the behavior and life history, conservation issues of African wild dogs as well as information on the bonds that dogs have had with humans throughout history.  Wikipedia offers a tremendous amount of information when it comes to the history of animals such as dogs, cats, horses and elephants and the bonds they have had with humans throughout history says Igor Purlantov.

If we look at elephants as well, Wikipedia offers a great amount of information and even goes so far as to educate us on how to tell the difference between African elephants and Indian elephants says Igor Purlantov. This is truly amazing information considering that less than 15 years ago most kids in school that were lucky enough to know about African and Indian elephants were still unable to easily tell the main differences between the two types of elephants (African elephants are larger in height, weight and ear size).  That has all changed now since someone can just search the word elephant in Wikipedia and find a wealth of detailed information ranging from how intelligent elephants are to the conservation efforts underway around the world that are trying to protect elephants says Igor Purlantov.

There is no doubt that the information available on Wikipedia about animals has presented us with a large amount of rich and detailed knowledge so that we are now able to easily learn more about just about any animal says Igor Purlantov. We can learn about dolphins, donkeys, lemurs, wombats, and even honey badgers and the information is all right there readily available on Wikipedia whenever we want to access it.  Despite its popularity, some people have raised concerns about the authenticity and correctness of information available on Wikipedia because of the fact that anyone can freely edit the pages of Wikipedia.  This has however only been an issue when it comes to disputed or changing information such the biography of a popular celebrity.  This is not an issue when it comes to information that does not change often such as the etymology, morphology and behavior of animals. This information on Wikipedia is rather standard information that is mostly undisputed and generally does not need updating according to Igor Purlantov. 

At the end of the day, there is no doubt that Wikipedia has strengthened our knowledge of the animal world and has allowed us to know more information than ever before about all of the amazing and wonderful creatures that share the planet with us says Igor Purlantov.