Strange Love: 10 Animals with Truly Weird Courtship Rituals

On Valentine's Day, lovers who are eager to woo their partners show their affection with traditional gifts of red roses, heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, or with romantic dinners at fancy restaurants. There's usually some effort involved, but pulling off a memorable Valentine's Day is easier — and generally safer — than some of the courtship rituals performed by other animal species.

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“If Animals Matter Morally, Then We Cannot Treat Them As Commodities”

Gary L. Francione is a controversial figure in the modern animal rights movement, known for his “abolitionist approach” towards animal rights. A professor of law and philosophy at Rutgers University, Francione believes that we cannot morally justify using animals as mere resources and that we should abolish all animal use. He argues that any being that feels pain has a right to not be used as property and that veganism should be the moral underpinning of the animal rights movement. As he puts it, “To not be a vegan is to participate directly in animal exploitation.”

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Best Movies Where Animals Destroy Humans

Humanity getting on your nerves? We hear you. Sometimes the best thing to do is to just hit the couch and watch a movie about nature taking its revenge on homo sapiens. But which film to watch? This list has you covered, broken down by what animal you’d most like to see dominating the dominant species on the planet.

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What are the World's Deadliest Animals?

What would you say is the world's most dangerous animal? A shark? A tiger? What about a crocodile?  An Australian man was killed by a crocodile this week; his friend escaped with his life after a three-hour ordeal.  Crocodiles are dangerous enough, they kill an estimated 1,000 per year. But the world's deadliest animal, year after year, is a much smaller creature: the mosquito.  Here are some of the world's deadliest animals.

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5 Times People Ruined Animals' Lives for a Selfie

Bad ideas and selfies are like the peanut butter and jelly of our times. While trying to snap impressive self-portraits at wildly inopportune moments, some of the distracted and vain have accidentally driven off the road and plowed into a tree, walked backward off a dangerously high cliff, and been bitten by a rattlesnake who was not in the mood to be photographed.

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The Verge Review of Animals: the cow

When we review animals here on The Verge, some of the conceptual fun comes from treating things that have been shaped by the callous hand of evolution like they’re high-tech gadgets. But cows — or more formally, members of the species Bos taurus — actually are as carefully designed as the iPhone, except that Jony Ive didn't need to capture and tame a herd of wild BlackBerrys to make one. The cow is an invaluable invention and a terrible animal, and we have only ourselves to blame.

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Video: Buff Kangaroo Moves Into Suburb and Flaunts Muscles

An unusually buff kangaroo has made a suburb of Brisbane, Australia, his new home, and he's reportedly been intimidating and astounding his human neighbors with his massive muscles.  Seven News Brisbane says the muscly marsupial has been spotted hanging out at the golf course in North Lakes, Queensland, among other areas. A resident named Linda Hellyer said she recently bumped into the brawny animal while walking her dogs.

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Rhino Survives Horrific Attack By Poachers

The rhino's rescuers gave her a name: Hope.  Poachers in South Africa had darted the rhino with a tranquilizer and hacked off her horns while she was sedated, leaving the animal with a horrific wound covering much of her face. A couple of days later, staff on a wildlife reserve found the grievously injured rhino — alive.

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Acknowledging Animals As Beings

We see ourselves as a unique species. And we are. Every species is unique and, like us, its members view themselves as such. To a fox, for example, every animal is either a fox or a non-fox and is dealt with accordingly.  But we take our uniqueness to extremes. Nothing that was said about an animal (except a pet) could hint that she was anything like us. She could not be “who,” she had to be “which” or “that,” and had to be “it” even if her gender was known. Even now, the spell- and grammar-check on one’s computer insists upon the way we speak of animals in an entirely inappropriate and inaccurate way, having been programmed by someone who has swallowed what political correctness decrees.

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Endangered Species Then and Now

The Endangered Species Act is more than 40 years old, which begs the question: Where are they now? “They” being the thousands of threatened plant and animal species that are protected under the landmark legislation.  Maintaining biodiversity is no easy feat, but many species have rebounded since the act’s inception in 1973. So far, 59 species have been delisted, 20 of which are considered true success stories. But others haven’t been so lucky. An animal can be taken off the list if it is no longer threatened or if it goes extinct. Today, more than 1,400 plants and animals remain endangered or threatened.

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Photographer Takes Breathtaking Portraits with Real Animals

Katerina Plotnikova is a photographer from Russia who takes dreamy photos with the help of real animals. The creatures she captures on these photographs are just unreal; there is no Photoshop involved, just a group of elite animal trainers. Enjoy the surreal, almost mystical quality of her work. 

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Video: Dog Makes Friends With a Seal

While a woman was walking her dog along a beach in La Cap Ferret, France, they happened upon what has got to be the single friendliest seal.  When the dog and seal began to snuggle, it had to be a real once in a lifetime moment for everyone there.  If one didn’t know any better, you’d almost think the seal has had regular contact with humans and their dogs to think it almost tame.  Remember dear readers, these are still wild animals.  They may display some almost “domesticated” behaviors, but you never know exactly what that animal will do if spooked or feels threatened by something.  It’s always best admire wildlife from a bit of a distance. It’s best for the safety of the wildlife, your pet’s safety, and of course yours as well.

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Dog Named 'Lazarus' Survives Euthanasia Attempt

Animal control officer Wanda Snell knows what she saw: A veterinarian inserted a needle into the black-and-brown mutt and injected a chemical meant to euthanize the dog no one had adopted. The animal moved a bit and was still and quiet by the time she left the shelter for home.  What Snell can't explain is how or why a mixed-breed dog that nobody wanted recovered overnight and has since bounced back fully from what should have been a lethal injection.

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Five Animals That Are a Lot Smarter Than You Think

The Oregon Supreme Court this month issued two landmark rulings that gave animals protections previously reserved for humans. Now police can intervene without a warrant to save an abused or neglected animal from its owner. Animal abusers are also subject to harsher punishments.  “As we continue to learn more about the interrelated nature of all life, the day may come when humans perceive less separation between themselves and other living beings than the law now reflects,” wrote Oregon Justice Martha Lee Walters in one of the decisions. “However, we do not need a mirror to the past or a telescope to the future to recognize that the legal status of animals has changed and is changing still.”

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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.

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