Most of the 3500 tigers alive today are found in Asian countries like India, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Thailand etc.

Many of these tigers are kept in captivity or chained in cages of a zoo.

But there is a peculiar Buddhist temple in Thailand called the Tiger Temple, or Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua.

This temple in Kanchanaburi, Thailand has become a popular tourist destination for its uniqueness.

The tigers in this temple live peacefully with Buddhist monks.

The Buddhist monks feed them, tend to them and protect them from external dangers.

The monks believe that the tigers are reincarnations of ancient monks.

Hence, they are convinced of the fact that these tigers won’t harm humans.

The monks encourage tourists to click intimate pictures with tigers.

Here, we can see a woman caressing a tiger on her lap.

The cute tigers seem to be accustomed to human interaction.

Rather than acting like wild animals, they calmly allow humans to get rub their belly!

However, humans can interact with the tigers only for a couple of hours in a day.

These tigers are allowed to rest, roam and play with each other for most part of the day.

Many locals and foreigners volunteer to monitor the tigers and take care of the temple.
Tigers are huge creatures with an enormous appetite!

Hence, many people work together to ensure that these tigers are taken care of properly.

Income from tourists is used for the up-keep of the tiger temple.
The monks and volunteers share a deep sense of compassion towards these tigers.

While these tigers may never be able to go back to the wild, this tiger temple ensures that these beautiful creatures never fall prey to hunters and poachers.

This an an extraordinary reserve which defies all rules of the wild.
But the Thai monks at the tiger temple assert that they have dedicated their whole life for the conservation and protection of tigers.

Major efforts need to be taken for the conservation of this beautiful animal.
The world needs takes steps to improve the population of tigers.

Source for these tigers images:
Image 1, Image 2, Image 3, Image 4, Image 5, Image 6, Image 7, Image 8, Image 9, Image 10, Image 11

As animal lovers we also have our favorite “authors”, whose memories (brought to us thanks to their owners subjective pen) testify the biggest expression of unconditional love. Those furry friends are sometimes the amazing stars of heartbreaking stories and always the main characters in the comedy of “Life is a big suprise”.

We want to celebrate this special day with you suggesting a few books that will touch you.

• Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog by John Grogan  Ah, dogs! Our best friends, the loyal pet… but what happens when the little puppy grows up and its “dog-sonallity” is still as uncontrollable as the cute baby but with long teeth? An adventure every day, that’s for sure!
• Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love by Larry Levin: We love animals, their funny pirouettes and their tender caresses. But some coward people use them in fights, assuming a wild-looking dog is dangerous. Wrong, Oogy was a sweet dog that had to fight for his live… But was luckily saved by a family who could see beyond his scarred face
• Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter Are you more of a “cats person”? This is the story of a librarian of a small town, who in a cold night found a little kitten into the returned book slot. This little creature filled her life and the ones of the library customers, who insist that Dewey was a very special cat.
• I’m Maru, by mugumogu If you have ever searched Youtube for cat videos, sure you have seen Maru. Maru is the cat of a japanese blogger who recorded her pirouettes and posted on Youtube. Soon she became a trending topic. “Have you seen the cat that opens drawers?”, “Have you seen the video of the cat that plays with a box?”, “Have you seen the latest video of Maru?” Now you can see more pictures and short stories about her adventures in this book that includes a poster.
• A Lion called Christian by Anthony Bourke and John Rendall In 2008 an extraordinary two-minute film clip appeared on YouTube and immediately became an international phenomenon. It captures the moving reunion of two young men and their pet lion Christian, after they had left him in Africa with Born Free’s George Adamson to introduce him into his rightful home in the wild. This book explains the whole story of this very unusual friendship.

Sad and tired with so many easy-tear books? We can also be animal lovers and laugh with them! And for us, the best way to share this happiness is with the following cartoons. Don’t miss them!

• Simon’s cat by Simon Tofield
• Cat Getting out of a bag and other observations by Jeffrey Brown
• Complete Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz
• The book of Bunny suicides (mmm… maybe not suitable for animal lovers who love also cartoon animals!)

Have you read some of these books? What do you think of them? Do you miss your favorite book? 

Aye-Aye

Aye-Aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis), a nocturnal primate from the Island of Madagascar has the perfect features for a role in a horror movie. The sheer look of the eyes is definitely enough to send shivers down the spins of anyone. The Aye-Aye physical appearance has made it one of the most feared animals in Madagascar, and is often killed on sight because of the belief that it carries evil spirits.

Blob fish

The blob fish (Psychrolutes marcidus), inhabits the deep waters off the coast of Australia and Tasmania. There is nothing good at all about the physical features of this fish…..its mere sight can make one throw-up, the good thing about this is that it is rarely seen.

Elephant seal-bull

The Elephant seal-bull looks overweight, has a large proboscis resembling an elephant trunk, and scary eyes, it is a sight that you won’t definitely recommend to anyone…..it’s simply disgusting.

Naked Mole Rat

If there is ever an animal that nature conspired against, the naked mole Rat (Heterocephalus glaber) will definitely take this “honor”.  With small eyes, thin legs, protruding teeth and lips sealed behind the teeth, it is a sight that you won’t like to have a second look.

The proboscis monkey

Just have a look at the nose……it says it all.

Sloths

Big eyes, long legs, tiny ears, excessive hair, a short snout, long-claws, flat heads, and stubby tails, will ultimately give rise to an ugly animal.

Sphinynx cat

The sphinynx cats are considered intelligent, but this cannot hide the fact that they are very ugly…

Tarsier

Tarsiers are small in size, but with very large eyes. In fact, its eyes are larger than its brains! This trait and the fact that it has extremely elongated tarsus bones and long slender tails all combine to give an ugly animal.

Vampire bat

The sight of a vampire bat is one that you would not like to see. Its physical features are rather scary…and Hollywood as effectively etched this image to many people from its movies where the Bat is portrayed as savage and blood thirsty.

Warthog

The warthog physical features are a combination of a pig, and a rhino. The two animals don’t have a semblance of beauty……the warthog with features of the two is a beauty disaster.

The following picture will definitely change your perception on Owls, they are Beautiful…..

Just have a look at those glowing eyes…

Mom and baby…probably waiting for daddy to come home

Aren’t those  eyes just lovely?……

Beautify in all its definition….. Just have a look at that face..

Just asking, it that a moustache…amazing isn’t it?

Well, talk about a beautiful pose and here you have one….

Looking so innocent and beautiful…

Owls are beautiful birds, you need not be afraid of them anymore….seeing them should bring a smile on your face not a frown definitely.

1. Cheetah – The fastest land animal on earth.

Although this wild cat is comparatively small in size, it can easily outrun any land animal.  A cheetah can reach speeds up to 75  miles per hour! The fastest speed clocked by a human, Usain Bolt is a measly 27.45 mph.

2. Sailfish – The fastest swimmer in the world.

The most noticeable features of a sailfish are the elongated bill and a colorful sail(erectile dorsal fin). However, many people don’t know that this majestic creature is capable of reaching speeds up to 70 miles per hour!

3. Rhinoceros Beetle – Weight Lifting.

This beetle is the superman of the animal kingdom. This insect can carry up to 850 times their own body weight. A human with such strength will be able to lift an object weighing 60 tons!

4. Rocket frog – Long Jump.

Don’t get fooled by its plain looks. This amphibian can jump upto 4 meters away from the ground. That’s 100 times its body length!

 5.  Gymnastics – Golden Wheel Spider.

This arachnid, also known as the dancing white lady spider, performs cartwheels like a true gymnast!  The Golden Wheel spider can roll  down the sand dunes of deserts by performing a “cartwheel” using all its 8 legs.

6. Spittlebug – High Jump

Also known as the froghopper, this insect can jump up to 28 inches high. A human with a similar ability will be able to jump to a  210-meter-tall building!

7.  Sperm whale – Diving

This beautiful mammal can dive up to a mile below the sea level!  Its breathing and blood-circulation systems are so well developed that they can swim in the deep ocean for an hour without having to come up for oxygen.

8.  River Otter- Luging.

Luging may be an extreme sport for humans. But believe it or not, playful River Otters  have been caught sliding in mud and ice chutes, just for the fun of it! This cute creature is often found near riverbanks.

9.  Sooty Shearwater – Marathon

This impressive bird travels a distance of nearly 40,000 miles in a year! Sooty Schearwaters are migratory birds who come down to land only for  mating and finding food.

10. Wildebeest – Triathlon

These beasts travel 1600 km, tackle crocodiles + strong water currents in rivers and survive  the claws of hungry predators waiting for their arrival on other side! They truly are the champions of triathlon in the animal kingdom.

Sources:

 image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4,  image 5,
image 6,  image 7,  image 8,  image 9,  image 10

This is the moment I have been waiting for all day long…

It is said cats are choosy; it seems they must also smell if the beer is mature enough for their consumption

I can’t let off my bottle….

This will definitely be one big hangover….

A nap will definitely do now….

Eyes focused on the bottle…

Facebook will definitely have to wait….

Who said  squirrels are not interested?

The Black Rhino

In the last six decades alone, the population of Rhinos has declined by a whopping 90%.  This decline in numbers has been attributed to poaching. Recent conservation measures have seen this number increase to over 4000 up from 3,000 in the mid-nineties.

Celebs Crested Macaque

Found in the Northwestern part of Indonesia. The celebs as they are commonly known have been heavily hunted as pets and bush meat mainly because of their devastating effects on food crops.

The greater Bamboo Lemur

Found in Madagascar, less than 200 of them are believed to exist. The rapid decline in their number has been attributed to the widespread clearing of their rainforest habitat.

Lowland Gorilla

Thanks to widespread hunting for its meat their numbers have significantly reduced. The decline in their number has also been attributed to the high deforestation rates in Central Africa.

Madagascar fish eagle

The Madagascar fish eagle has been one of the causality of the high rates of deforestation in Madagascar. The development of wetlands areas for rice paddies has also been linked to the decline in their numbers.

The Siberian Crane

The loss wetlands have heavily impacted on the Siberian crane with their numbers having decline significantly in the past few decades.

Penguins are aquatic flightless birds living in the southern hemisphere especially in Antartica. They are highly adapted for life in the water, their wings have become flippers! Most penguins eat krill, fish, squid, and other animals underwater. They spend half of their lives in land and half in the oceans.  They are not only found in cold climates such as Antartica, in fact, only a few species of penguin live so far south. One species, the Galápagos Penguin, lives near the equator.

The Emperor penguin is the largest living species, The adults average about 1.1m tall and weigh 35 kg or more. The smallest species is called the little blue penguin. which is 40 cm tall and weighs 1kg. The smallest penguins are generally found in temperate or even tropical climates, while the largest penguins are generally found in the colder regions. But there are exceptions!!

These pictures are funny, and penguins are very beautiful animals. When I saw these images I decided that penguins are extraordinary when they are swimming. Penguins are famous animals widely regarded as cute and lots of people adore them… there are lot’s of documentaries and movies about them!

Photo1, Photo2, Photo3, Photo4, Photo5, Photo6, Photo7, Photo8, Photo9, Photo10, Photo11, Photo12, Photo13, Photo14

Cattle are ruminants, meaning that they have a digestive system that allows use of otherwise indigestible foods by regurgitating and rechewing them as “cud”. The cud is then reswallowed and further digested by specialised microorganisms in the rumen. These microbes are primarily responsible for decomposing cellulose and other carbohydrates into volatile fatty acids that cattle use as their primary metabolic fuel. The microbes inside the rumen are also able to synthesize amino acids from non-protein nitrogenous sources, such as urea and ammonia. As these microbes reproduce in the rumen, older generations die and their carcasses continue on through the digestive tract. These carcasses are then partially digested by the cattle, allowing them to gain a high quality protein source. These features allow cattle to thrive on grasses and other vegetation. [Wikipedia]

]]> http://www.animals-zone.com/lovely-mountain-cows/feed 1 http://www.animals-zone.com/hedgehogs-sooo-cute http://www.animals-zone.com/hedgehogs-sooo-cute#comments Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:22:15 +0000 http://www.animals-zone.com/?p=3782

We just happened to find this picture online today, two hedgehogs side by side in a human hand. So cute! One is still a baby, sporting newly grown spikes, while the other is larger (not as large as a hedgehog can get!). Hedgehogs are not aggressive, but rather passive and they suffer a lot when their spikes are growing. If you have a hedgehog pet, you should rub his skin with some vegetal oil (like sunflower or olive) to keep it most and soft while the spikes are appearing. He’ll appreciate it!

Image sources: link link link link link link

But who could not love such a small and flurry animal like the cutie below?

Of course, young cats are curious and like windows. Maybe this explains why the kitten below is fighting with a Linux penguin?

Curious curious… Kittens are always looking around. Maybe this is why they have this deep blue eyes?

Kittens are also potential world thinkers, like Emily below:

But they are always funny to watch, above all when they go around two-legged:

Or when they try to play mental tricks on you:

Sources: Link1 Link2 Link3 Link4 Link5 Link6

He raised his pigeon (Prince) since he was just a few weeks old, thus the bird considers Jeff his parent.

But he was the first surprised after the bird started following him when he went jogging.

He started to increase the distance between Prince and him, whistling the bird to come back to his hand. And then one day, he started cycling, with the bird flying alongside.

All pictures CC from Flickr (link1, link2, link3, link4)

Cats are known as selfish, dogs as loyal, fishes as dull. What about rabbits? Rabbits are superheroes!

Anchorage, Alaska, night. A house full of smoke and only one animal ready to do what needed to be done.

The brave home rabbit woke up his owner by scratching her chest, and when she realised the house was full of smoke woke up her daughter and fled the house (with the rabbit).

A firefighter team was quick enough to stop the flames, and mother and daughter were unharmed. But the courageous rabbit didn’t make it, and died. Smoke inhalation was the cause.
Image courtesy of Robobobobo at Flickr. We could not find pictures of the brave rabbit, but this looks brave enough

It is good news and bad news for Yvonne. She will live out the rest of her days in comfort, but she has lost her freedom.

The worldwide illegal trade in wildlife is valued at tens of billions of USD’s and is believed to have the same significance now, as the blood diamond trade during the peak of the African civil wars. In 2006 alone, eleven metric tonnes of illegal ivory were seized from ships bound for countries like Taiwan, China and Japan.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) says that immediate action is needed to be taken to protect these mammals from complete extinction. The group calls for the European Union and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) members to stop supporting legal sales of ivory products in the open market of developing countries. Instead these members have been urged to back Kenya’s new proposal to extend the current “resting period” on elephants and ivory sales from nine to twenty years at the next CITES meeting which is to be held in March 2010.

The alarming level of illegal hunting could drive the African elephant to extinction across the entire in just 15 years from now says the director of IFAW UK. He adds: Most people will be shocked to hear that, although 20 years on from a ban on international ivory trade, elephants in Africa are the biggest threat by commercial poaching. The ivory trade must be banned once again, and this time with strict laws need to be enforced, if we want to prevent the extinction of these huge mammals. Sadly, the truth is that ivory trade is a threat to elephants anywhere on this planet.

Chad’s Zakouma National Park had 3,785 elephants in the year 2005 but by 2009 the figure had dropped to 617. At least 11 forest rangers were killed by poachers there during the same period.

Elephants are not the only one’s in the illegal trafficking of wildlife parts. In the last few years, 57,00 reptile skins from India, 18,000 big-eye thresher shark fins in Ecuador and 24 metric tonnes of pangolin in Asia have been seized by commercial wildlife part poachers. This indicates there are many other animal species which are on the verge of extinction by poachers and we humans should intervene and stop this illegal trafficking of wildlife parts.

By 2004, the Cat House on the Kings was home to over 500 cats, and cat-lover donations just couldn’t cover the ever-growing expenses. Luckily, a very generous donor left her entire estate to the cat haven, and the money was used to purchase the neighboring six acres and install cat-proof fencing around the entire facility. Now there are almost 800 abandoned and feral cats housed at Lynea’s shelter, and even though taking care of them is a full-time job, she welcomes each new arrival with open arms.

A no-kill, no-cage sanctuary for cats, the Cat House on the Kings also features 12 acres of grassy fields, a nursery, an intensive care unit, and even a retirement home for elderly felines. There are cat doors and dog doors everywhere so any animal that wants to go in or out, can, and there are feeding stations and water everywhere on the facility so they can just go wherever they please and live their life freely. Lynea herself says that if she were a cat, this is where she’d be. She has 25 employees helping her and even though she’s always in full-speed mode, they still can’t keep up with everything that needs to be done. Some call her the “crazy cat lady” for even trying, but she says she’s not crazy, what she does is crazy.

That cuddly little fox you’ve always wanted as a pet is no longer out of reach. A new version of the silver fox has been introduced as tame enough to enter our homes.

The silver fox is a melanistic variation of the red fox. Silver foxes have darker pigmentation such as the fox shown above. Their coats vary from being completely black with a white tip on the tail to a bluish-gray coat. The dark coat of the silver fox is usually held in much higher esteem by the fur coat industry even in comparison to the most flawless beaver or otter coats. The darker the pelt, the more valuable it becomes. Historically, such a demand for this particular coat eventually arose that the production needed to be sustained through the farming of the silver fox.

Tame foxes began to appear in the 1950s in Siberia when fox farmers asked Russian scientist Dimitri Belyaev if he could help to breed a not so aggressive animal. Given the opportunity, Belyaev set himself on domesticating the silver fox by using selective breeding to hereditarily change fox aggression. Thereafter, by breeding only the tamest foxes Belyaev came upon a new breed of fox.

As early as the tenth generation of breeding, friendlier foxes began to show characteristics unusual in the wild Siberian fox. Characteristics such as the curling of tails, floppy ears and even barking arose. Breeding the tamest foxes together led to variations in their genetic make-up never before seen in a wild population of this particular animal.

It was surprising enough that the floppy ears and waggly tails emerged in a wild population of foxes, but what was most unusual was the variation in the coat. Suddenly, the silver fox coat that held such a dark pigmentation was no longer dark. And what made it so strange was that the variation should not have occurred. This idiosyncrasy led scientists to look elsewhere for an explanation.

Many times, selective breeding gave rise to a white or mixed coat color such as that displayed by the fox above. This raised a lot of questions, all of which pointed to their adrenaline levels. Generation after generation of breeding had an effect on the adrenal glands, which explained their behavioral and physiological changes.

Friendly foxes don’t have the level of adrenaline they formerly had – a byproduct of surviving in the wild. And a strong correlation between adrenaline and melanin was later discovered that explained the color of their coat. In other words, tame foxes are no longer producing as much adrenaline as their wild forebears, making them the friendliest foxes in the world.

American company SibFox Inc. is a private company operating as a conduit that connects North America with silver foxes from Siberia. Selectively breeding the Siberian fox proved successful for Belyaev. It seems like quite a step from farming these foxes for their lovely fur to domesticating them for their precious company. And as we appreciate the tameness of a lovable wolf – the first domesticated animal, your dog – we can now appreciate that unmistakable friendship with a fox. Tame foxes have the energy and companionship of a dog while displaying the independence of a cat. 

The 31-year-old Thai national, whose identity has not been revealed by Thai authorities, was scheduled to board a Mahan Air flight to Iran. But when she was seen struggling with a large bag at check-in, airport officials decided to x-ray her luggage. The x-rays revealed the tranquilized tiger cub among stuffed-tiger toys.

The smuggler—who admitted carrying the cub—could face four years in prison, a $1,280 fine, or both for possessing and smuggling an endangered animal.

With wildlife trade on the rise, officials at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport who rescued the live tiger cub  had just gone through a training course on how to spot smugglers. Few wildlife smugglers are ever caught, and penalties are usually no more severe than a parking ticket.

There should be a happy ending for the smuggled tiger cub (pictured), which is being cared for at Thailand‘s Rescue Center of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation.

DNA samples will determine the baby tiger’s subspecies—such as Bengal, Sumatran, or Siberian—which will help authorities figure out where the cub came from.

]]> http://www.animals-zone.com/live-tiger-cub-luggage/feed 0 http://www.animals-zone.com/four-legged-warriors http://www.animals-zone.com/four-legged-warriors#comments Sat, 10 Sep 2011 10:01:49 +0000 draganescu http://www.animals-zone.com/?p=3635 Dogs in warfare have a long history starting in ancient times. From ‘war dogs’ trained in combat to their use as scouts, sentries and trackers, their uses have been varied and some continue to exist in modern military usage.
Here are some images of soldiers  with dogs and sweet adorable puppies. Really priceless images. Enjoy!

An unlucky pigeon takes its final look at the world – peeking out from a pelican’s beak. The little bird had been eating near a pond in St James Park, London, when it was scooped up by the much bigger bird. Adults and children watched in horror as the pigeon tried desperately to escape for 15 minutes. At one point it looked like it was going to break free as the pelican opened its beak, allowing the pigeon to gaze out. But the startled creature missed its opportunity and was swallowed whole. Photographer Paul Mansfield, 44, captured the remarkable scene while on a day trip to the capital with his family.

Photographer Steve Shinn caught the moment luck ran out for one poor gopher. Steve was snapping great egrets in California when he captured an egret sneaking up on a gopher and then skewering and gobbling it down.

A lucky seal launches itself to safety from the mouth of a great white shark – using the predator’s razor sharp teeth for leverage. Photographer Chris Fallows, 38, watched as the Cape fur seal darted left and right in a desperate bid to evade the vicious 11-foot-long shark. The massive creature failed to get a proper grip allowing the seal to launch itself to safety as the shark tried to get a second bite. Miraculously, the seal escaped with a minor flesh wound off Seal Island in False Bay, Cape Town, South Africa.

Siberian tigers look up waiting for a chicken to land at the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin, China. Visitors to the park can buy birds for 50 yuan (£4.50), pieces of meat, or even a live calf to be fed to the tigers.

Adult brown bears hunt for salmon at the Brooks River in Katmai National Park near Bristol Bay, Alaska.

Fisherman Valery Krugersky was stunned when a cheeky frog jumped into his net – and swallowed his catch whole. The frog lay in wait in a lake near Chernigov, Ukraine, for the fisherman to get a bite before pouncing on the fish in his homemade net.

A mouse looks out from the jaws of a huge voracious African bullfrog. These carnivorous amphibians have an aggressive temper and can jump 3.5 metres.

Madhuri, an Indian elephant, swings a monitor lizard around by its tail. The unlucky creature had been swept off the ground and was carried around for a number of days by the elephant. With its tail firmly clamped in the animal’s trunk the lizard was swung around and occasionally put back on the ground. The scene was captured by Jagdeep Rajput during a trip to Corbett National Park in India.

A cat shows interest in a frog sitting on a rock in the eastern German town of Sieversdorf.

A lion attacks a pangolin in the Selous Game Reserve in in Tanzania. Passing the pangolin around like a football, inquisitive lions spent hours trying to devour the armour-plated creature. British wildlife guide Mark Sheridan captured the action during a tour of the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania. In the end the lions gave up and wandered off in search of something else and the pangolin escaped.

This tiny starling didn’t stand a chance when a hungry bald eagle swooped in for a mid-air snack. The bird flies on, unaware of the enormous predator closing in behind it.

A duck flies off in alarm as an osprey swoops in to catch its lunch. The photo was captured by photographer Lee Fisher at a lake in the highlands of  Scotland.

This is the moment an osprey swooped down and snatched a trout straight out of the water. Wildlife photographer Mark Hancox waited for seven hours in a cramped hide on the shores of Loch Garten, Scotland, before the bird caught its prey.

A courageous vole takes on a coyote a hundred times his size in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. The tiny rodent’s chances of survival looked slim when he was plucked out of the snow by the hungry predator but he stood his ground.

A jaguar and a caiman battle in the Pantanal region of Brazil. Eventually the big cat defeated the reptile in the vicious encounter, which was captured on camera by French photographer Patrick Fagot.

Whale Saves Diver

Athlete Yang Yun was part of an underwater competition that required contestants to remain at to the bottom of a 20-foot arctic pool in China’s Polar Land when the freezing temperatures caused her legs to cramp, leaving her unable to return to the surface.
That’s when one of the tank’s residents, a beluga whale named Mila grabbed Yun’s leg and guided her up toward the air.

Dolphins Save Surfer

Flipper spent several seasons helping humans out of jams, but his rescues aren’t entirely out of the ordinary for the dolphin population.
Stories of dolphins rescuing humans are everywhere, including the one about Todd Endris, a surfer who survived an attack by a great white shark that he said “came out of nowhere” off the coast of California.
After he was bitten, a pod of bottlenose dolphins circled Endris, holding off the shark until he could make it back to shore – just as they would for one of their own.

Gorilla Saves Boy

When a 3-year-old boy fell into the gorilla exhibit at the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois it wasn’t just injuries from the 24-foot-drop that put him in danger: The exhibit had several adult gorillas on display that were also a threat.
But 7-year-old female gorilla Binti took over, picking up the boy and cradling him before leaving him gently by a door for zookeepers to rescue him. The toddler was transferred to the hospital and recovered.

Dog Saves Boy

Man’s best friend isn’t the kind to shy away from rescuing an owner, but it’s still heartwarming to hear about pups that put themselves in harm’s way for their masters.
In this case, it was 18-week-old puppy Pinky who grabbed the attention of a swarm of bees that was headed for her human companion, 9-year-old Richie Bragg: Pinky was stung more than 40 times but survived, and most likely saved Richie – who has a blood condition that prevents proper clotting – from needing serious medical attention.

Seal Saves Man

When an injured elephant seal pup was rescued in 1994 at the animal center that would become the Aquarium of the Pacific, keepers were simply hoping she’d survive — she did, and became a favorite of visitors and locals with a reputation for being “a gentle giant,” as volunteer Hugh Ryono writes on the Aquarium’s blog.
But when Ryono fell while feeding seal pups a year later and found himself unable to get out of the way of the pups’ aggression, it was Gimpy that stepped in, protecting Ryono from an attack (and earning a writeup in Reader’s Digest).

Lions Save Girl

While some sites dispute the truth of this story, The Guardian reports that, in 2005, a girl in Ethopia was kidnapped by seven men and beaten for a week — until three lions chased the men away and stood guard over the girl until police found her.
Theories for the lions’ behavior range from the idea that they mistook her cries for those of a baby lion to the possibility that they were preparing to eat the girl when the police arrived, but The Guardian quotes an Ethopian police sergeant as saying, “If the lions had not come then it could have been much worse.”

Watusi Calf Saves Woman

Along with mentioning Gimpy the seal in its “True Stories of Hero Pets” collection, Reader’s Digest also brought our attention to Lurch, an African Watusi calf that intercepted his owner, Janice Wolf, while she was walking the paths of her Arkansas refuge.
Lurch refused to move out of the way and when Wolf grabbed his horns to guide him, he knocked her off balance – thereby preventing her from stepping on a coiled copperhead snake she was about to disturb.

Dolphin Saves Drowning Swimmer

It’s not just shark attacks that inspire dolphins to swim into action and save humans: One rescuer, Filippo, was a popular resident of the Adriatic Sea off Italy’s Manfredonia who became a spur-of-the-moment lifeguard when a 14-year-old boy fell into the ocean – without knowing how to swim.
Scotland’s Daily Record reports that the dolphin pushed the boy to keep him above the water until his parents could pull him to safety.

Elephant Saves Girl

Amber Mason, an eight-year-old girl from Bucks, England, was in Phuket, Thailand when the tsunami struck in 2005 – riding an elephant named Ningnong.
As the water rose, the elephant ran up the shore, taking the brunt of the impact and keeping Amber above the water.

1. Siamese

2. Persian

3. Egyptian Mau

4. Maine Coon

5. Bengal

6. Himalayan

7. Toyger

8. Ragdoll

9. Burmese

10. Siberian

11. Munchkin

12. Abyssinian

13. Ocicat

14.Norwegian Forest

15. Tonkinese

And who said that I’m wrong?

I have bathed myself and bathed the duck!

Hot girl…

I’m a cool guy!

We’re gangsters

Cheer! Hawaii’s waiting for us!

We’re a perfect couple!

Yoda

I’m a bee!

I’ll save the world!

I keep the order

Wow! You can look right through me!

When I sent this picture to my friend,he said “…I initially thought a motorcyclist had exploded. But then I noticed the subtle background-whale”

Giacomini’s la femme et le chat is a stunning black and white series of a woman and her cat walking along a lovely cobblestone street in Italy. There is a peacefulness about the photos that capture your gaze.

What a sweet and charming set!

The word “zoo” was coined in the 1840s by the London Zoo, which first called itself a “zoological garden,” but the idea of holding animals in public viewing cells dates back to 3500 B.C. in Egypt. Ancient Rome collected exotic animals, too, although they were often forced to fight each other (or humans).
Zoos remained more like prisons than parks well into the 1900s, with animals still spending most of their lives in small cages. As decades passed and the concept of animal rights gained traction, zoos began building more naturalistic enclosures. Today, most modern zoos strive to offer their residents a humane habitat — most, but not all. A few zoos still seem to rely on a handbook from the 1800s, due to either desperate poverty, indifference or both.

Kabul Zoo

Of all the places you’d expect to find a zoo, Kabul may not be at the top of your list. The Afghan capital has been racked by years of war and foreign occupation, and remains a chaotic place despite halting progress since the 2001 U.S. invasion. Inaugurated in 1967, the Kabul Zoo once housed more than 500 animals, but decades of war have caused extensive damage, while rampaging soldiers have decimated its animal population — sometimes for food, sometimes for sport.
Today the Kabul Zoo is a sad place for an animal to live. It has a couple hundred inhabitants that regularly endure miserable conditions, often including unchecked harassment from visitors. It has received some support from zoos around the world, but remains in need of substantial improvements.

Gaza Zoo

Gaza is another place you wouldn’t necessarily think of having a zoo. In recent years the Palestinian city has suffered from Israeli blockades and internal conflicts, and its zoo hasn’t fared much better. Today it houses two lions, a few monkeys, some birds, rabbits, cats, dogs and two fake zebras: donkeys painted with black and white stripes (pictured).
The zoo once had two real zebras in its collection, but they died of malnutrition during the Israel-Hamas war, when there was actual fighting within the zoo itself. Zoo officials later tried to replace the zebras, but finally opted for painted donkeys due to limited funds.

Giza Zoo

Founded in 1891, the Giza Zoo in Cairo, Egypt, was once among the best zoos in Africa. But today it’s a shell of its former glory, expelled from the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums in 2004 after failing an inspection. WAZA director Peter Dollinger wouldn’t tell Reuters in 2008 why exactly the zoo was expelled, saying only that “There were things that were not acceptable.”
Zookeepers reportedly augment their salaries by charging patrons to enter the cages with the animals, and two men broke into the zoo in 2007, killing two camels. Dozens of birds died from avian flu in 2006, and more than 500 were slaughtered to stem the outbreak. According to the Global Post, zoo workers also inhumanely killed two gorillas in 2004 thought to be infected with the Ebola virus.

Mumbai Zoo

The Mumbai Zoo in India is quickly transforming itself into a taxidermy museum. Unable to replace animals that die in its cramped and dirty cages, the zoo decided it’s better to stuff them and put them on display. The zoo’s collection of more than 200 mammals, 500 birds and 45 reptiles are now basically running out the clock, waiting for their demise and a quick trip to the taxidermist.
Zoo officials defend their plans as making the best of a bad situation. Zoo director Sanjay Tripathi told the BBC in 2010 that “the public will be able to see and appreciate the animals and even study their body structure.”

Tirana Zoo

The zoo in Tirana, Albania, is better described as an animal prison — most of its residents are kept in small, featureless rooms lined with hospital tiles. Monkeys sit sadly in their cells, eagles cling to inadequate perches, and bears pace in chain-link cages far too small for their size. As photographer Paul Cohn writes in a Flickr caption,The staff have put up chain-link fence and mesh fence to keep people from throwing food and cigarettes into the cages, or sticking their fingers in to touch the animals. Visitors have tried to vandalize the fencing nonetheless.”
And since there aren’t many other zoos in Albania, the Tirana Zoo reportedly has a hard time finding qualified staff and is grossly underfunded.

Pyongyang Central Zoo

North Korea’s Pyongyang Central Zoo is located in suburban Pyongyang and has a large collection of more than 5,000 animals. It was built in 1959 under the orders of dictator Kim Il-sung and is, like many places in that walled-off country, a grim place to live.
A 2006 report by the Asia Times described a movie shot in the country called “Fighting Animals,” which purported to be a wildlife documentary but actually showed caged animals — even some endangered species — fighting to the death. Since many of the animals in the video can only be found in the Pyongyang Zoo, it seems likely zookeepers were involved in the film’s production.

Polar Bear

Polar bears are the largest species of bear and biggest carnivores on land. Males commonly weigh in around 1,300 pounds while females are typically smaller and weigh up to 650 pounds. Warming temperatures are shrinking the polar bear’s arctic habitat, and some scientists believe the bears could be extinct by the end of the century.

Dinosaurs

According to USGS, “The largest complete dinosaur we know of was Brachiosaurus; it reached 75 feet in length and 40 feet in height. The smallest dinosaurs were just slightly larger than a chicken; Compsognathus was 3 feet long and probably weighed about 6.5 pounds.” Regardless of size, though, barely any dinosaurs survived the mass extinction 65 million years ago.

Hippo

Common hippos, Hippopotamus amphibious, are the second heaviest land mammals on Earth. Hippos in Congo have been reduced to less than 900, and scientists think this population will be extinct by the end of the century.

Saber-Toothed Tiger

Fossil evidence indicates that the saber-toothed tiger (Smilodon californicus) , known for its 8-inch upper canine teeth, was somewhat shorter than a modern lion, but weighed more. This meat-eater was very common in California during the late Pleistocene epoch that ended about 11,000 to 10,000 years ago.

Whales

Whales are the largest animals on Earth. Some can be 100 feet long and weigh up to 150 tons. Yet many of them feed on tiny shrimp-like crustaceans called krill.

Manatee

The average adult manatee grows to be about 10-12 feet long and weighs about 1,000-1,800 pounds. Known as the “cows of the sea,” these endangered beasts hear 10 times better than humans underwater.

Sea Turtle

A sea turtle can grow to 200 pounds or more, but despite its size, many die from being choked by six-pack holders or from getting trapped in abandoned fishing nets.

Buffalo

Weighing in at 2,000 pounds, the American buffalo is the largest terrestrial animal in North America. Also known as the bison, millions of the animals roamed the plains until they were hunted to near extinction in the 19th century. Now conservation efforts have brought the population up to 350,000.

African Elephant

The African elephant is one of only four species of elephants still alive. African elephant generally weigh in around 16,000 pounds, and illegal poaching and habitat reduction has cut their population in half in the last 30 years.

Rhino

The heaviest white rhinoceros can weight as much as 5,000 pounds. Rhinos also suffer from habitat reduction, and poachers value the beast’s magnificent horn.

Source

Handyman about the house

Don’t get any peace

Bright lights big city

Light and airy

Just hanging out

Check out my wheels

That’s just grate

Sculptural style

Ready to make a fast exit

Staying connected

Easy to contact

Morbid fascination

Prickly temperament

That’s just rubbish

Source

If you oohed and ahhed over the first couple of pictures, you might have to prepare yourself for the next image…. open wide!

The best wildlife photography is often expressed through the unexpected.  Like these giraffe kisses for a squirrel!

Among cute animal photographs, you’ve gotta agree… this one tops the charts!

Looks like a Chorus Line is coming to a desert near you!  These foxes appear to be warming up with some synchronized stretching and yawning.  All together now….

This gazelle is probably thinking that grooming is for the birds!

Stunning pictures of animals are often captured in high-speed.  You can practically smell the dirt and feel dust in your eyes when you consider this image of two greyhounds closing in on their target.

Who would believe that a rhinoceros could be so precious?  Baby animals, no matter their species, make wonderful photography subjects.  Especially when a mother’s love is so obvious.

You thought those greyhounds above looked fast?  I’m not sure this mouse will get away with the stolen kitty kibble!  And just check out the look on the cat’s face.  Can you say intent?

This trio of owls in a Pacific Northwest forest is the epitome of wild beauty.  Just imagine coming upon this scene while walking through the woods.

Yikes!  Another example of perfect photographer timing.  What a lucky killer whale…. fast food!

It must be getting closer to spring!  Little lamb jumps for joy, thinking about fresh clover and a warm sunny spot to rest later.

I’m not sure if this last image was photoshopped or not (my guess is “yes”).  Either way, the artistry of this photograph is incredible.  Here’s your chance to use the words “frog” and “beautiful” in the same sentence…