(Second in a series on belugas in captivity.) Tales of belugas stretch back thousands of years. A 6,000-year-old rock carving in northwest Russia shows a woman, perhaps a shaman, communicating with a beluga whale. A Medieval Christian legend tells of a white horse being resurrected as a beluga. But today, many scientists believe that belugas may be our best hope when it comes to trying to establish language-based communication with other animals.
Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times begins a series of reports on the war between elephant poachers and wildlife authorities in the Democratic Republic of…
A stowaway kitten who survived three weeks without food or water in a shipping container bound from China to Los Angeles has a new home. Ni…
The captivity industry’s assault on the world’s cutest whales The Georgia Aquarium has applied for a permit to import 18 beluga whales from Russia into the…
Another voice joins the chorus of scientists warning that it’s too late to turn back the tide of climate change. The train has left the station,…
You’ve probably never thought about it as you lead Fido from tree to tree on his neighborhood walk, or as he mingles with other dogs for the latest water-cooler gossip around the trees of the dog park. But there’s mounting evidence that Fido and his pals are killing those trees.
(Update: The winner of the Festival was Henri reflecting on his existential angst in a classic homage to the French New Wave movies of the 1960s.…
Two animal statuettes from the Stone Age have been unearthed by archeologists near Jerusalem. The one above is of a ram; the other is a more…
How much should a zoo tell its visitors about what’s happening in the wild to the kinds of animals they have in captivity? Should they risk…
By law, marine mammals can only be held in captivity and put on display at zoos and marine circuses if they are doing this for “educational…
At the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Uganda, everyone knows that Natasha is the smartest of them all. Now a series of scientific tests have confirmed her intelligence.
The latest version of the old “dolphin assisted therapy” scam has pregnant mothers going to a resort in Peru where two captive dolphins supposedly make their…
The search for the lion stalking the eerie grasslands of Essex County (the scene of one of P.D. James’s best murder mysteries) has been called off.…
There’s only one fitting conclusion to the investigations currently being conducted into the shocking conditions at the Canadian marine zoo Marineland, following the revelations by the…
How does a cat go from feet up to feet down in a falling reference frame without violating the conservation of angular momentum? (Huh?)
If you’re getting fat and you don’t know why, it may be that you’re being dosed with antibiotics in the meat you’re eating. Two new studies…
For the weekend: A rescued stallion who’s all hormones … a pit bull who literally ate the homework … a pheasant with a broken leg ……
You’ve probably heard enough about rape for this week – what with Rep. Paul Ryan’s concept of “forcible rape” and Rep. Todd Akin’s notions about “legitimate…
If you think Romney and Ryan are an odd couple, here’s an even odder one: Paul Ryan and Matthew Scully. Not sure who I’m talking about?…
Ivan, known in this country for most of his life as “the Shopping Mall Gorilla,” died this week at Zoo Atlanta. He was 50 years old.…