Poachers in Africa Have a New Enemy

How can a team of just 70 rangers more effectively protect the wildlife in an African national park the size of Rhode Island?  One word: statistics.  That’s the theory, anyway, behind a new paper published this week in the journal Conservation Biology. The study used a new statistical model to look at 12 years of illegal activity within Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park as a way to predict the possibility of future crimes.  It’s not quite Minority Report, but it may help foretell behavior and therefore protect the park’s elephants, hippos, buffalo, and other heavily poached wildlife.

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Chimpanzee Representatives Argue for Animals' Rights in Court

Representatives for two chimpanzees argued before a New York judge on Wednesday, in the first hearing of its kind over their “personhood” rights and freedom from a research institution.  Steven Wise, the lead attorney for the Nonhuman Rights Project, the group arguing on behalf of the chimps, said that the apes are unlawfully imprisoned and that the court should relieve them. They are “autonomous and self-determining beings”, he argued, and therefore deserve the right to bodily liberty.

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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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Celebrities Help Save the World's Last Male Northern White Rhino

One of the world’s most critically endangered animals is about to get a little star-studded support.  Over the next few months, as many as 18 celebrities from around the world will travel to Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy, where they will have the opportunity to meet one of the planet’s rarest animals: Sudan, the last male northern white rhino.  Only five northern white rhinos remain alive, and Sudan is 42. Three of them live at Ol Pejeta. Two other elderly females live at zoos in San Diego and the Czech Republic. None of the animals is capable of breeding naturally. Ol Pejeta is exploring artificial means of reproduction to preserve the species.

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Lucky The Elephant's Paintings Raise Money For Her Treatment

Lucky the elephant is an artist unlike any other, using her talents to not only raise awareness for an important cause, but to also raise money to help herself fight a rare disease.  Fifteen-year-old Lucky was raised at the Cambodian rescue center after she was abandoned at only 6 months old. Her mother, rescuers said, was likely killed by poachers.Nick Marx, wildlife rescue director at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center in Cambodia, said that she has become a symbol of the conservation movement at the center.  
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More Say Animals Should Have Same Rights as People

Almost a third of Americans, 32%, believe animals should be given the same rights as people, while 62% say they deserve some protection but can still be used for the benefit of humans. The strong animal rights view is up from 2008 when 25% thought animals' rights should be on par with humans'.

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21 Animal Pictures To Make You Crease Yourself

THERE ARE OF course thousand, nay, MILLIONS of gas animal pictures on the internet.  This is just a selection of our favorites…

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He Didn’t Know How Long His Puppy Had To Live So He Filmed Her Every Day

Dave Meinert made a beautiful film of his dog Pegasus as she grew up.   This video has gone hugely viral in the last week.  It was made by Dave Meinert, 34, a film-maker from South Africa, and it stars Pegasus.Meinert rescued her from backyard breeders when she was a puppy.  He told BuzzFeed: “Most of her siblings died or were deformed. I’ll never know what was wrong.”  He said: “She saw seven vets in the beginning. She’s just a dog that’s always sick and always, always happy.”

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Seeing Humanity In Farm Animals

You can tell a lot about a person from their expressions. Perplexed eyebrows, pursed lips.  Animals are no different.  From raised noses to lowered heads, outward displays of emotion are not exclusive to humans. But perhaps that isn't the message inked in these portraits taken by Ronan Yver.  Farm animals have their own stories. Their lives consist of more than rolling in the mud and grazing the fields. The perception of farm life cannot be taken at face value. You have to dig deeper for the truth under the skin.

http://tinyurl.com/qyrxh25