 A big campaign blocked–for now–what would have been the UK’s biggest breeding farm for laboratory beagles. About 75,000 U.S. dogs are being tested on; the biggest US breeder, Charles River, has 736 dogs. Keep reading Ricky Gervais helps stop breeding beagles for research  Black-throated diving birds (which look like loons, but are really rare in the UK) are being saved by rafts provided for their nests in remote Scottish Highlands. Keep reading Rafts saving loons in Hidden Highlands  London and southeast England have growing populations of feral green birds, rose-ringed parakeets, that roost in some of London’s biggest parks. Keep reading Where to see feral parrots in London and the UK  Fox in news: as pets? cryptid? giant beasts? pushing Navy off island? Euro hunter disputes Keep reading Foxes pushing boundaries, both as pets, giant pets, hunting targets  Ambitious English squirrel used Kia as stash. Killer, buying the grizzly attack myth, tried to commit suicide by bear by ODing in Yellowstone. Yellowstone bison saved by public. More animal news Keep reading Squirrel stalls car with 6 lbs of peanuts; Why not to try “suicide by bear”  A tabby in Wales inherited from a relative turns out to be 39–and still playful but deaf. Keep reading Welsh cat claims to be 39, making her world’s oldest  During the mating season all animals become a bit careless, more aggressive and more visible. In the U.S. hunting seasons are timed to fit the rut to make it much easier for hunters to find and call the animals. It’s interesting how Brits think that’s just too easy and unfair. Keep reading UK Questions Hunting During Rut After Elusive Exmoor Emperor Killed  A hunter aims at a bear menacing a tent, but just can’t shoot the animal, in an ad by Tipp-Ex, the British version of white-out. Then the fun begins: you get to use Tipp-Ex to cover up the word shoots and replace it with whatever you want. You can have the hunter kiss the bear, hug the bear or dance with the bear. I’m not sure how many possibilities there are in the bear-hunter interaction. It’s like the animal lovers version of Burger King’s Subservient Chicken. What if you really want the hunter to shoot the bear? Too bad. Type that in and the bear plays a prank on the hunter instead. Dances with Bear Re-write the hunter’s story here Where to Go See Bears  Hedgehog Ears by by codepo8 Later this week up to 100,000 Brits will be going to their yards and counting badgers, hedgehogs, foxes, toads and moles. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds got 62,000 people to count last year when they started out. The survey “is by far the biggest survey on garden mammals ever!” the site boasts. I’ve certainly never seen anything like it in the U.S. It’s a fantastic resource for wildlife watchers because you can see which counties have the most of which animals. Sure, it’s not totally scientific. People self-select to do it. And if I had a yard full of hedgehogs, I’d be filling out surveys and telling everyone I know about it. The 2009 results showed a delightful amount of wildlife. In Wales, 9% of people who took the survey see badgers at least once a month and a quarter of the English live with have little hedgehogs on their property. What kind of magical place is this? Did anyone report any talking bunnies? The survey just takes an hour, so they don’t demand that–unlike similar bird surveys–the animal doesn’t have to show up just at that moment. They let people report sign of an animal ask generally how often they’re seen. Otherwise you might get a whole lot of nothing from the survey. As you might guess from its name the RSPB is more interested in birds than mammals. They also ask about cats, which they estimated recently that Keep reading UK Repeating Survey that Last Year Found Widespread Charming Mammals  A rescued fox cub and a dog bred to kill foxes are becoming friends at a hotel/wildlife sanctuary in Cornwall. The Gwel an Mor had already turned wildlife rescue into an eco-attraction at its lodge. Then animal wrangler Gary Zammit heard a fox cub crying in the field. He worried his own dog would attack the cub, but instead they’ve become wrestling buddies (and UK media celebrities). The fox, now called Copper, and dog Jack now play constantly, when they’re not being featured on the BBC or the Telegraph or other outlets. Actually, it’s their pictures of rassling that have become so popular. “They just play fight there’s never any malice in it,” says Zammit. Jack is a lurcher–a kind of greyhoundish mixed breed popular in the British Isles, but obscure in the U.S.–a dog traditionally used to hunt rabbit and fox. The story is like a real life Fox and the Hound, in which a fox cub is raised by a hunter and befriends his hound. I forget the rest of the story, but I remember crying over the book as a kid. Copper isn’t going to end up hunted; he’ll get to live at Gwel an mor, where guests are lead on wildlife walks to try to spot wild foxes and badgers. Zammit makes a point of telling the press that the fox cub was crying there for two days. That means he didn’t just rush in and scoop it up while its mother was off Keep reading Real Life “Fox and Hound” Story at UK Wildlife and Farm Sanctuary |
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