A brown bear has received the largest dental crown in history, representatives at the Lake Superior Zoo in Minnesota have revealed.

The bear, named Tundra, fractured one of his four major canine teeth and needed a first-of-its-kind metal crown for protection. A veterinary dentist fitted the specially designed silver-colored cap in a successful hour-long surgery at the zoo on June 23.

"Tundra the Brown Bear just made dental history!" a Lake Superior Zoo representative wrote in an Instagram post. "We're thrilled to share that Tundra has officially received the first-ever full metal crown placed on a bear — and it's also the largest veterinary crown ever created in the world!"

Tundra first fractured his right canine in 2023. The zoo's dentist initially treated the bear by giving him a root canal, but when Tundra later injured the same tooth, the zoo team decided he needed a full coverage crown, according to a statement released by the zoo.

Creature Crowns, a specialist veterinary dental company based in Idaho, created Tundra's new crown from a wax cast of the injured tooth, The Associated Press reported.

Related: Watch polar bear cubs emerge from their winter den for 1st time on Svalbard

The 6-year-old brown bear (Ursus arctos) weighs about 800 pounds (360 kilograms) and, when standing up on two legs, reaches a height of around 8 feet (2.4 meters). For the staff's protection, Tundra was sedated while the new crown was fitted. Lake Superior Zoo's armed response team also stood guard as the veterinary dentist worked, just in case Tundra woke up before his procedure was over — but he didn't, The Associated Press reported.

The surgery was successful, and Tundra is now eating normally again. His new silver full-coverage crown should protect the canine from further injury and bacterial infection.

"He's got a little glint in his smile now," Caroline Routley, the zoo's marketing manager, told The Associated Press.

Editor's note: This article was updated to correct the material used for the bear's crown, from titanium to talladium metal.

A captive snake in Australia has broken the world record for the most venom produced in one go, according to the creature's keepers.

With a single bite, the snake — a coastal taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus) named Cyclone — ejected more than 0.18 ounces (5.2 grams) of venom. That's three times the average amount produced by a coastal taipan and enough to kill 400 humans, according to the Australian Reptile Park, a zoo located 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Sydney in New South Wales.

"Cyclone is one of our most dangerous snakes here at the park and is known for being quite unpredictable and keeping us all on our toes," Billy Collett, the operations manager at the Australian Reptile Park, said in a statement shared with Live Science.

Coastal taipans are one of the most venomous snake species on Earth. They are native to coastal regions in northern and eastern Australia and typically grow to 6.6 feet (2 meters) long, according to the Australian Museum. Coastal taipans have a rectangular head with a pale snout and large, orange-brown eyes. Their bodies vary in color from yellow to reddish-brown, dark brown and almost black.

Related: Why does Australia have so many venomous animals?

"Coastal taipans are not the most venomous snake in the world, but they are known worldwide for their aggression and bites have caused fatalities every year," Collett said.

The previous venom yield record belonged to another coastal taipan at the park called Whiplash, which produced 0.17 ounces (4.9 g) of venom from a single delivery in 2022.

The park is the only facility in Australia that "milks" taipans to produce antivenom, Collett said. Keepers also extract venom from other deadly snakes, including eastern brown snakes (Pseudonaja textilis), tiger snakes (Notechis scutatus), death adders (Acanthophis) and black snakes (Pseudechis).

Milking snakes can be dangerous, according to the statement. "The process of milking a venomous snake requires keepers to secure the … snake, sink its fangs into a large shot glass covered with plastic and get it to deliver its lethal bite," Collett said. The venom is then freeze-dried, meaning it is dehydrated at low temperature, and sent to a vaccine manufacturer, Collett said.

Cyclone's record-breaking venom contribution will go toward saving someone's life, according to the statement. Around 3,000 snake bites are reported every year in Australia, resulting in approximately 500 hospital admissions and an average of 2 deaths. According to the Australian Snakebite Project, coastal taipans bit 31 people between 2005 and 2015, and although no deaths were found in that project, another study recorded at least one death between 2000 and 2016.

A female shark at Brookfield Zoo in Illinois has birthed a pup despite having no contact with a male for four years, the zoo announced on Nov. 1.

The "virgin birth" occurred on Aug. 23 after a five-month incubation period and is only the second known birth without fertilization reported for an epaulette shark (Hemiscyllium ocellatum) in captivity, according to a statement. Animal care staff kept the pup hidden from the public for two months for monitoring but have now said the 5- to 6-inch (13 to 15 centimeters) female shark will be on display in the zoo's "Living Coasts" section.

"This epaulette shark has an exciting hatch day story," Brookfield Zoo staff wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday (Nov. 9). "What's most interesting is this embryo developed without the need for male fertilization. This process, known as parthenogenesis, is relatively rare for complex vertebrates like sharks."

Parthenogenesis, meaning "virgin creation" in Greek, is a type of asexual reproduction in species that would usually reproduce sexually. It has been observed in birds, sharks, lizards and snakes in captivity — and in June, scientists recorded the first ever virgin birth in a crocodile. The females of species capable of parthenogenesis can produce eggs that contain all the genetic information needed for reproduction. Mammals cannot reproduce asexually, because mammals, including humans, require certain genes to come from sperm.

Related: Pyjama sharks filmed mating in a giant, otherworldly underwater forest in 1st footage of its kind

The pup's mom arrived at Brookfield Zoo in 2019 from a New England aquarium, where the first known virgin birth of an epaulette shark was reported. Since then, the female has not been housed with a male. She reached sexual maturity last year at age 7, staff said in the statement, and she began laying two to four eggs every month.

One of these eggs developed into an embryo without being fertilized by a male's genetic material.

"Shark pups produced parthenogenetically can be very delicate," Mike Masellis, a lead animal care specialist at Brookfield Zoo, said in the statement.

But the newborn appears to be healthy, he said. "We are happy to report that our epaulette pup has been eating well on her diet of finely chopped capelin [fish], minced squid tentacles and other finely chopped seafood. We are looking forward to guests being able to see the pup."

Epaulette sharks are mostly nocturnal and can grow to be 3.5 feet (1.1 meters) long, according to the Australian Museum. They live in the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland, Australia, from the northern tip of Cape York Peninsula to the islands and reefs of the Capricorn and Bunker Group. These slender sharks are named after large eyespots above their pectoral fins that make them appear larger than they are and look somewhat like the shoulder ornaments on some uniforms.

Epaulette sharks have been known to "walk" short distances across sandy seabeds — the species' preferred habitat — and to use their muscular pectoral fins to land on the seafloor, according to the statement. 

One of the world's most endangered animals, an African wild ass — which looks like a donkey with zebra legs — has been born at a zoo in the U.K., raising hopes for its species' continued survival.

African wild asses (Equus africanus) are a species of donkey native to Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. The wild donkeys have light gray coats, with a single black stripe along their spines and horizontal stripes on their legs, similar to the markings on a zebra. 

African wild asses are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Experts believe there are fewer than 200 individuals left in the wild.

The new, unnamed male, or jack, was born Aug. 20 at Marwell Zoo in Hampshire, England. The foal, which zookeepers describe as having "gangly legs" and "floppy ears," currently shares an enclosure with its mother Nadifa, according to a statement from the zoo. As with most other equine species, the foal was up on its feet shortly after being born and took no time at all to get up to full speed. 

Related: 'World's rarest' giraffe born without spots at Tennessee zoo

"The foal has already been seen doing 'zoomies' around the paddock and is looking nice and healthy," Darren Ives, a senior animal keeper at Marwell Zoo, said in the statement. The neighboring Addax (Addax nasomaculatus), a critically endangered species of antelope, seemed to take a particular interest in the energetic foal and spent lots of time watching him run around from their enclosure through their adjoining fence, Ives said. 

The foal's father, Lars, has been temporarily moved from the enclosure to allow the foal and Nadifa to bond. In the wild, the relationship between a foal and its mother is extremely important to the offspring's chances of survival and well-being. As a result, the keepers are keen to encourage a similar bond between the two in captivity. 

In the wild, African wild asses live in groups, or coffles, of five or fewer individuals. 

The foal is Nadifa's third offspring, while Lars became a father for the fifth time. Nadifa was born at Marwell Zoo in 2007 to parents who had been at the zoo since 1993. The asses' keepers are "very proud" of their multi-generational breeding program, which has become increasingly important as wild populations decline due to historic hunting and competition for resources with livestock. 

A reticulated giraffe at a zoo in Limestone, Tennessee is going viral after being born without spots.

Zookeepers at Brights Zoo have dubbed the brown female giraffe, which was born on July 31, "the world's rarest" of the species and believe that she's the only solid-colored reticulated giraffe (Giraffa reticulata) in the world, according to a statement.

Despite being only a few weeks old, the long-necked mammal already stands at an impressive 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall.

Related: Giraffe sex is even weirder than we thought, and it involves pee

The only other known instance of a spotless reticulated giraffe dates back to the 1970s, when a baby named Toshiko was born sans spots at a zoo in Japan, according to archival photos.

A giraffe's spots are paramount for the animal's survival, especially in the wild, where the colored patches camouflage the animals from predators in the savannas of Africa, according to the Denver Zoo.

But that's not their only purpose. Beneath each spot resides a "sophisticated network of blood vessels" that branch off into smaller vessels that help release body heat, according to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation. That means the currently nameless baby giraffe might be at greater risk of overheating.

While the spotless baby is currently doing well, giraffes in the wild are struggling.

"Wild populations are silently slipping into extinction, with 40% of the wild giraffe population lost in just the last three decades," Tony Bright, the zoo’s founder, said in the statement. 

The zoo is currently running a naming contest for the newest member of its family on its Facebook page. 

Cassius, the largest living crocodile in captivity, could be even bigger than previously thought.

The saltwater crocodile — who is thought to be 120 years old — entered the record books in 2011, when he measured nearly 18 feet (5.48 meters) long. But his keepers haven't measured him since, meaning Cassius may have grown even bigger since then.

"It's very possible Cassius may have grown bigger since 2011, however we have not attempted to remeasure him," Toody Scott, who looks after Cassius at Marineland Crocodile Park in Australia, told Guinness World Records. "We may attempt this in the near future to provide some insight into growth rates of large crocodiles or of course if his record was being challenged."

Saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) can grow up to 23 feet (7 m) long, with another record holder — a 50-year-old, captive animal in the Philippines named Lolong — measuring more than 20 feet (6.17 m). Lolong was captured in 2012 and briefly replaced Cassius as record-holder, but the crocodile died one year later after flipping over with a bloated stomach and Cassius was reinstated as the world's largest captive croc.

Related: Crocodiles are drawn to the wails of crying human babies and infant primates

Despite having likely lived more than twice as long, Cassius probably won't catch up with his predecessor. "As crocodiles get larger than 5 m [16.4 feet], growth rates seem to slow to as little as 1 cm [0.4 inch a year] and in many instances the crocodile may stop growing," Scott said.

But Cassius might also be missing a few inches as a result of injuries he sustained in the wild. When researchers captured him in 1984, the gigantic croc had been fighting other crocodiles over territory and attacking boat engines, resulting in him losing bits of his snout and tail. These missing body parts were not factored into his 2011 measurements and could have added an extra 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 cm) to his length, according to Guinness World Records.

Based on the size of crocodiles that have lived in the Marineland park since birth, Cassius' keepers estimate the colossal croc was born in 1903. This year therefore marks the saltwater giant's 120th birthday, and his keepers say Cassius may have "years to come."

"Becoming a Guinness World Record holder certainly shot Cassius to 'croc-stardom,'" Scott said.

A monkey from a zoo in Europe was recently seen carrying around her baby's corpse for several days after it died. Then she devoured her own child. The mother's unusual actions may improve her chances of having another child in the future, experts say.

In August 2020, the female drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus), named Kumasi, gave birth to a son at the Dvůr Králové safari park in the Czech Republic. But eight days later, the infant died — the cause of death was never determined but the infant was not deemed to be in poor health when it was born. 

Kumasi carried her child's corpse around her enclosure for almost two days and prevented keepers from removing the body, potentially in denial that her offspring had died. But toward the end of the second day, things turned ugly as Kumasi began eating her dead baby. She had ingested most of the remains before the body was eventually removed; no other monkey in the enclosure ate any of the remains.

Researchers who were studying the drill troop recorded the entire ordeal. The team described the grim event in a new study published June 27 in the journal Primates. The paper includes videos of Kumasi carrying around and eating her child. (Warning: Some people may find these clips distressing.)

It is not clear exactly how many times infant cannibalism has been documented, but it is "very rare," said study co-author Elisabetta Palagi, a primate biologist at the University of Pisa in Italy. "In scientific literature, you can find only anecdotal reports," she told Live Science This makes the recent incident of infant cannibalism one of the most well-studied cases to date, she added.

Related: Albino chimp baby murdered by its elders days after rare sighting

In the days after the infant died, Kumasi kept her infant close to her as other members of the troop came to inspect the child's lifeless body. The mother may have been grieving for her child, but the researchers suspect that she may actually have been unsure or unwilling to accept that he was dead. 

Kumasi continually put her face in front of the corpse's eyeline as if trying to engage her baby's gaze. "Monkeys and apes often inspect the face of their dead babies like this, possibly to perceive the eye movements," Palagi said. "When the mothers do not receive any feedback from the baby, it probably means that something is going wrong."

As time went on and she got no response, Kumasi grew restless and began dragging and throwing the corpse around the enclosure. What followed next, from a human point of view, was a horrific act, but the researchers believe that Kumasi had good reason to devour her dead son.

"If we consider the incredible reproductive energy investment of primate mothers, cannibalism can be considered an adaptive evolutionary trait that helps the mother to recover energy after gestation," Palagi said. This could increase her chances of reproductive success in the future, she added.

"The fact that the mother did not share the carcass with other group members supports the hypothesis of the nutritional benefit of cannibalism," Palagi said, because the others were not in need of the additional nutrients.

This is not the first time infant cannibalism has been explained as a way to increase reproductive success. In 2019, researchers observing a population of white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus imitator) in a national park in Costa Rica witnessed a female eating the remains of an infant that had died after falling from a tree. The female was not the infant's mother, but she did give birth two weeks later, suggesting she only turned to cannibalism to gain extra nutrients for her own offspring.

The researchers of the recent study believe the baby drill's age could have also played a role in it being eaten. "The younger the baby, the less likely the mother-infant attachment has become sufficiently strong to prevent maternal cannibalism on the dead infant," Palagi said.  

But the researchers do not believe the monkeys' captivity played a role in the death of the infant or the cannibalism from the mother, as the zoo takes efforts to make the monkeys' lives engaging, researchers said.

And this effort extends to other primates in the safari park. For instance, in 2021, keepers set up a large screen in the chimp enclosure to enable the apes to face-time with other chimps living in another Czech zoo in Brno. The virtual meeting was set up to help replace social interactions with visitors that had been kept away by the COVID-19 pandemic and proved very popular with the chimps. 

Cassius, a 120-year-old crocodile living in captivity in Australia, is "happy and healthy" and will live "for years to come," experts who conducted his annual health check say.

"Cassius is such a magnificent, beautiful boy," Sally Isberg, managing director at the Center for Crocodile Research in Australia who led the assessment, said in a video shared with Live Science. "He's just an absolutely fascinating character."

At 18 feet (5.5 meters) long, Cassius is the world's largest crocodile living in captivity and recently turned 120, or thereabouts. A health assessment conducted June 19 found "no reason to believe Cassius will not live for years to come," Toody Scott, a crocodile keeper at the Marineland park where Cassius now lives, told Live Science in an email.

Researchers don't know how long saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) can live for, but they can die of old age, said Adam Rosenblatt, an assistant professor of biology at the University of North Florida.

"My own educated guess is that the maximum lifespan for crocodilians as a group is in the range of 100-120, but they would only attain those ages in captivity," Robenblatt told Live Science in an email. "In the wild most crocodilians probably don't live past 60."

Related: 'Virgin birth' recorded in crocodile for 1st time ever

Cassius has spent more than 35 years at the Marineland Crocodile Park on Green Island. He was captured on a cattle ranch in 1984 after he attacked livestock, having roamed in the wild for up to 80 years. 

The researchers noted that the gigantic croc becomes skittish when keepers use machinery around the park, which may stem from trauma he suffered during his time in the wild.

Keepers told Isberg that Cassius "exhibits funny behavior" and "reacts badly" when they use loud equipment and machinery near his enclosure.

"He was taken from a situation in the wild where I feel that he wasn't very happy," Isberg said.

Cassius was missing the tip of his snout when he was caught, leading researchers to believe he was responsible for attacks on boats that — at the time — were pinned on another crocodile called Sweetheart. 

"He had the tip of his snout broken, which you can get from attacking a propeller," Grahame Webb, a crocodile researcher who participated in the capture, told ABC News.

Crocodiles have extremely sensitive mouths, and Cassius may be more delicate than most. 

"The scales on the front of their mouth are all about pressure receptors; they're all about honing in on prey," Isberg said. "Maybe those boat motors [created] extra vibration that quite irritated him. When a croc gets irritated by something, the only way he can express that irritation is to go to bite at it," Isberg said.

But now, in captivity, Cassius appears to be "a happy, healthy boy," Isberg said.

The ancient crocodile will undergo another checkup next year. Assessments are typically done through observation to avoid causing the animal stress. "Crocs are apex predators and have a very heightened fight or flight response," Scott said. "If restrained, the flight response is triggered and it can take some time for the crocodile to recover."

In the meantime, keepers will make sure Cassius gets enough sunlight to stay healthy by clearing the tree canopy over his pen.

"A stress-free crocodile generally will self-heal any injuries and be free from disease, as they have a stronger immune system [than stressed crocodiles]," Scott said.

Polar bear twins have been reunited in a zoo after more than two years apart. The siblings were separated shortly after birth when one of them developed severe health problems and was later rejected by their mother.

The female polar bears (Ursus maritimus), named Astra and Laerke, were born at Detroit Zoo on Nov. 17, 2020 to mother Suka and father Nuka. But two days later, Laerke was separated from the den she shared with her mother and sister due to a medical emergency, which required keepers to hand-feed her and monitor her around the clock. After making a full recovery, zoo staff attempted to slowly reintegrate Laerke with Suka and Astra — but it did not go to plan. 

"Suka was very protective of her cub, Astra, and acted aggressively toward the cub she no longer recognized as her own," Detroit Zoo representatives told Live Science in an email. Laerke remained in a separate enclosure during the reintegration process and "was never at risk of being injured" by the mother, they added.

Astra and Suka were moved into separate enclosures in January this year after Astra reached the age when polar bears leave their mothers in the wild. This gave zoo staff the opportunity to reunite Astra with her twin, who grew up alongside an abandoned grizzly bear named Jebbie.

Related: Secret population of polar bears found living in seemingly impossible habitat

After a brief period of reintegration, where the pair met and interacted with one another in adjoining cages, zoo keepers let Laerke into Astra's new enclosure on April 11. The reintroduction went extremely well and "the sisters appear to enjoy sharing a space," the zoo representatives said. They hope the pair can remain together full-time, the representatives added. 

On April 17, the zoo shared heartwarming images of Astra and Laerke playing together on Facebook along with the caption "sister, sister — never knew how much I missed ya."

Keepers will continue to closely monitor the pair in the coming weeks. They expect that after becoming familiar with one another, the twins may spend less time together, which is normal because adult polar bears tend to keep to themselves in the wild.

Laerke's story is quite a common one in zoos. 

On Feb. 27, Born Free — a U.K.-based charity that advocates for relocating captive animals to the wild, as well as improving their quality of life — released a report into the issues associated with keeping polar bears in captivity. Along with concerns about reduced lifespans, improper diets and a lack of space to roam, the report said captive cubs are more likely to die or develop health complications in captivity, with less than half surviving past 30 days. 

When humans step in to save them, mothers can end up rejecting their babies. This is likely because mothers are more stressed when giving birth in captivity than in the wild, according to the report.

However, Polar Bears International, a non-profit conservation organization, says zoos and aquariums also play an important role in conserving polar bears. 

Captivity will also play an important role in preserving the species for future generations to appreciate because climate change is expected to wipe out most wild populations, potentially as early as the end of this century. 

A lion infected with SARS-CoV-2 at an Indiana zoo likely transmitted the virus to at least two of the keepers that were caring for the big cat, a new study shows. It is the first confirmed case of an infected zoo animal transmitting the coronavirus to a human, researchers say. However, such transmission is likely rare and in this case, probably resulted from the fact that the lion needed to be fed by hand, scientists wrote in the study.

It's long been known that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can infect many species, and that it can pass between humans and animals. The virus likely jumped from an animal to a human in the first place, and past studies suggested that pet cats and dogs catch SARS-CoV-2 from owners at extremely high rates. Other studies showed that deer have transmitted the virus to humans, and infected hamsters in a Hong Kong pet shop sparked a human outbreak of the delta variant. 

However, "animal to human transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has not previously been reported in a zoo setting," researchers wrote in the paper, which was posted Jan. 31 to the preprint database medRxiv. (The results have not yet been peer-reviewed.)

Related: Bored chimps at Czech zoos video chat during lockdown

The unidentified African lion (Panthera leo), which was around 20 years old and resided at Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in December 2021 after developing a cough and becoming breathless. The 10 zookeepers who had been in close contact with the infected feline were immediately tested and all of the tests came back negative. But later in the week, three of the keepers tested positive, having not come into contact with any other infected humans. 

In the new study, researchers genetically sequenced viral samples collected from the lion and the infected zookeepers. The results showed that the lion and two of the keepers shared a genetically identical strain of the virus, but the third keeper's sample could not be properly sequenced.

The lion was elderly — wild lions very rarely make it past their mid-teens — and suffered from a kidney disease and spinal degeneration, which meant that it needed to be hand fed. This significantly increased the chances that the keepers contracted the disease from the lion before it showed symptoms. After the lion tested positive, keepers wore respirators when interacting with the lion and all other animals at the zoo.

Related: Meerkats seem to rejoice when zoo visitors return after lockdown

The researchers suspect the lion contracted SARS-CoV-2 from an asymptomatic zoo keeper . The lion had received two doses of a non-human COVID-19 vaccine in September and October 2021. 

COVID-19 is particularly dangerous for felines, who share the same receptors for the virus as humans,  meaning that they can become extremely ill or even die from the disease, New Scientist reported. The lion was euthanized several days after it tested positive, due to the severity of its symptoms.

Zoo animals and COVID-19 

A wide variety of zoo animals have been infected by SARS-CoV-2 including gorillas, snow leopards, hippos, hyenas and giraffes. The first zoo animal in the U.S. known to be infected with COVID-19 was a tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York City back in April 2021. 

However, the risk of most humans contracting the virus from an animal remains very low and it is much more likely for humans to infect animals than the other way around, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"You would have to be in very close contact with such animals to get infected," study co-author Leslie Boyer, the medical director of the Venom Immunochemistry, Pharmacology and Emergency Response (VIPER) Institute at The University of Arizona, told New Scientist. "People like vets, farmers [and] zookeepers who often work close to the oral and nasal regions of these animals are most at risk to such transmission."

Three chimpanzees have been shot dead and four remain on the loose after mysteriously escaping from their enclosure in Sweden's Furuvik zoo.

The animals sprung themselves from their enclosure at midday on Wednesday (Dec. 14) to be met with gunfire from staff, who zoo officials claimed would have been put at considerable risk had they attempted to tranquilize the apes. One chimp was wounded by the bullets and returned to its enclosure by itself, but has so far been unable to receive medical attention, meaning that it could have died.

Furuvik zoo, situated around 104 miles (168 kilometers) north of Stockholm, had been closed for the end of the season when the chimps escaped by unknown means. The group, consisting of seven animals, are popular in Sweden and their deaths have sparked public outrage. Furuvik zoo has responded by insisting that the killings were necessary.

Related: Amazing video shows a mom chimp medicating her child's wound with insects

"Chimpanzees can be perceived as peaceful, but they are extremely dangerous. They are fast, very strong and generally fearless. It can quickly escalate into a life-threatening situation," The zoo wrote on its Facebook page on Thursday (Dec. 15). "Therefore, we unfortunately had to make the decision to euthanize three of the chimpanzees that had left their enclosure. This is not something we take lightly. The safety of people is always our top priority."

Three of the killed chimps have been identified by the zoo as Linda, Santino and Torsten. Linda, born in 1980, was brought to the zoo after her family was killed by poachers in Liberia. Santino was born in 1978 and was renowned for his love of art, as well as being the favorite chimp of Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria. (Both Victoria and her sister, Princess Madeleine, are believed to own paintings made by the ape.) 

Torsten, a juvenile, was born in captivity in 2019 and was just 3 years old. His parents — Maria-Magdalena and Tjobbe — are among the three survivors. Another chimp, Manda, the adopted daughter of Linda, was heavily injured by the staffs' bullets and may have since succumbed to her wounds. 

The park has defended the actions of its staff, claiming that they would have not been able to anesthetize the animals without endangering themselves.

"Anesthesia is not an option when a chimpanzee ventures outside its enclosure at risk to human safety," The zoo wrote on Facebook. "To shoot with an anesthetic arrow, you need to be very close to the animal. This, combined with the fact that it can take up to 10 minutes for the anesthetic to take effect, would mean a great danger to people's safety. When a chimpanzee is loose in the park, you therefore unfortunately have to shoot to kill."

The decision to euthanize the animals has received widespread opprobrium from Swedish animal rights organizations, the public and the press.

"It should not have been necessary to shoot the escaped apes," Ing-Marie Persson, a former caretaker who worked with the chimps for 30 years at the park told the Swedish newspaper Afton Bladet. "It is deplorable. So poorly done."

Swedish police confirmed on Thursday that the incident has been reported as a violation of Sweden's Animal Welfare Act, which says that animal enclosures have to be escape-proof. 

"It is clear that this has not been the case," Jonas Eronen, a press spokesperson for the police, told the Swedish news site Ekot.

Chimps owe their formidable strength, which is 1.35 times greater than that of humans, in spite of their smaller size, to an increased quantity of fast-twitch muscle fibers responsible for strength and speed. While chimpanzees tend to be afraid of people in the wild, captive animals are far more accustomed to humans and therefore much more likely to attack. During attacks, chimps focus on peoples' faces, feet, hands and genitals. The Jane Goodall Institute UK notes that chimps are often unsatisfied and understimulated in human environments, increasing the danger they may pose to themselves and others.

An extremely rare white tortoise baby has just been revealed to the world for the very first time. The tiny, red-eyed reptile has pigmentless skin and a pale shell, caused by a genetic disorder known as albinism. Zoo keepers say the odds of an albino tortoise are 1 in 100,000.  

The white tortoise is one of two Galápagos giant tortoises (Chelonoidis niger) that recently hatched at Tropiquarium, a zoo in Servion, Switzerland. The pair of eggs were laid by a 220-pound (100 kilograms) female on Feb. 11; the albino baby hatched on May 1 and its darker sibling emerged on May 5. The baby tortoises each weighed just 1.8 ounces (50 grams) at birth and were initially hand-reared by zookeepers in incubators, before rejoining their mother at the zoo on June 3, according to Reuters.

"We were surprised to discover an albino baby," zoo staff wrote in a statement. "This is the first time in the world that an albino Galápagos tortoise has been born and kept in captivity," and there are no documented cases in the wild, they added. The team also speculated that the birth of a white tortoise could be as much as five times rarer than the birth of an albino human, which is around 1 in 20,000 people, according to the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation, a nonprofit organization that provides information and resources about albinism to people in the U.S. and Canada.

Albino animals are unable to produce a skin pigment known as melanin, which is what gives color to skin, hair, eyes and feathers — and in this case, the tortoise's shell. Albino animals often appear to have red eyes because their eyes have no pigment, so they appear the same color as the blood vessels underneath the eyes' surface. 

Related: 7 oddly colored animals that caught our eye in 2021 

Albinism is a genetic condition, which means it is passed down from parents to offspring. However, it is a recessive trait, so both parents need to possess and pass on a copy of the gene. Because the parents usually only have one copy of the albino gene (unless they are also albino), they appear with the animal’s typical colors.

It is unclear how long the albino hatchling might survive. Galápagos giant tortoises are the largest tortoises on Earth and can live for more than 100 years in the wild. However, albinism can make animals more susceptible to damage from the sun's ultraviolet rays and prone to other health complications, such as reduced vision and hearing difficulties. It also makes animals that are normally darker colored more visible to predators. This means animals with albinism often don’t survive for very long and die before they can pass on their genes — which explains why the condition is so rare. But if they are cared for properly in captivity they can live relatively healthy lives. 

Breeding Galápagos giant tortoises in captivity can be challenging.  The mating rituals of these enormous reptiles can be quite aggressive: Males repeatedly ram females' shells with their own and sometimes bite females' legs, before mounting them. The males also produce very loud and deep moaning sounds during sex, which helped inspire the roaring sounds of dragons from HBO's hit fantasy show "Game of Thrones."

Like a majority of reptiles, Galápagos giant tortoises’ gender is determined by the temperature at which the eggs are incubated. In this species, warmer conditions cause the tortoises to become female, and lower temperatures produce males, according to the San Diego Zoo. The genders of the new pair of hatchlings are uncertain because there are no physical differences between males and females at this age, according to Reuters.  

Zoos are the only places where Galápagos giant tortoise hatchlings — albino or not — can be observed. In the wild, hatchlings seem to "disappear" until they are around five years old. Researchers aren't exactly sure where the babies go, but scientists suspect that the juvenile tortoises spend their first few years hiding in forest undergrowth to avoid their only natural predator: Galápagos hawks (Buteo galapagoensis), according to the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). Nobody is sure how the tiny tortoises spend these so-called lost years, but when they reemerge they are too large to be carried off by the predatory birds, ZSL says. 

Captive breeding in zoos is a very important tool for conserving these massive tortoises, which have become scarce in the wild. Wild tortoise populations in Galápagos were severely impacted by early European explorers, whalers and naval crews, who hunted tortoises as a source of oil and food for long journeys across the seas. Scientists think there were once around 200,000 giant tortoises in the Galápagos Islands, which are named after the tortoises (the word "Galápagos" comes from an archaic Spanish word for "tortoise"), but there are now only around 15,000, according to the Galápagos Islands Trust. 

Experts also believe that warmer temperatures caused by climate change could be skewing the gender ratio among tortoise hatchlings, which could impact future reproduction in the wild. (If more babies are born female, there will be fewer males to mate with, reducing genetic diversity in wild populations.)  

Originally published on Live Science.

An anteater infected with rabies at a Tennessee zoo potentially exposed more than a dozen people to the deadly virus, according to a new report.

The unusual case marks the first time that rabies has been reported in this species, a type of anteater from South America known as the southern tamandua or lesser anteater (Tamandua tetradactyla), according to the report, published Thursday (April 14) in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a journal from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

What's more, the anteater in question had recently been transferred from a zoo in Virginia and was infected with a variant of rabies not typically seen in Tennessee, meaning the animal likely caught the virus before its transfer, the report said. This case highlights the potential for "rabies translocation" from one geographic area to another through the movement of captive animals, the authors said.

The case began in early May 2021, when the anteater was transferred from the Virginia zoo to a zoo in Washington County, Tennessee, where it was housed with one other anteater. In late June 2021, the transferred anteater started showing signs of illness, including lethargy, loss of appetite and diarrhea, the report said. At first, veterinarians presumed the anteater had a bacterial infection and prescribed antibiotics. 

Related: The deadliest viruses in history

When the animal's symptoms continued to get worse, veterinarians at a nearby college examined the animal. But at first, staff at the college did not consider rabies as a possible diagnosis because the animal wasn't known to have any bites (which can spread rabies) and rabies had never been reported in this type of anteater (tamanduas) before. 

Interestingly, tamanduas have a very low body temperature of 91 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius) — one of the lowest body temperatures of any active land mammal, according to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance — and such a low body temperature was thought to reduce the risk of infection with rabies, the authors said.

Ultimately, the anteater got so sick that it was euthanized on July 6, 2021, the report said. Veterinarians performed a necropsy to try to understand why the animal died, and samples of the anteater's brain tissue tested preliminary positive for rabies on Aug. 16, 2021. Additional testing was performed by the CDC, and the agency confirmed the diagnosis of rabies on Aug. 21, 2021.

Because anteaters don't have teeth, there was no risk of the animal biting people and giving them rabies. But some people may have been exposed to the animal's saliva or brain tissue (during the necropsy), which could have spread the virus, the report said. After an assessment of people who came into contact with the anteater, officials recommended that 13 of these people receive rabies postexposure prophylaxis, which consists of multiple shots of the rabies vaccine. All 13 people agreed to receive the treatment.

As of April 1, 2022, no additional cases of rabies related to this case — in either humans or animals — were identified in Tennessee or Virginia , the report said.

Further analysis revealed that the anteater was infected with a variant of the rabies virus seen in raccoons in the eastern United States, including those in Virginia, but not previously seen in Tennessee. This suggests that the anteater acquired its infection at the Virginia zoo, the researchers said. The Virginia zoo was notified about concerns of rabid raccoons on their property, and the zoo confirmed that native wildlife (including raccoons) had been seen inside the zoo's fencing perimeter, the report said. 

"Captive mammals maintained in exhibits or zoological parks typically are not completely excluded from rabies host species and can become infected," the authors wrote. They noted that "all employees who work with animals in areas where rabies is endemic should receive preexposure rabies vaccination." 

In the current case, three of the 13 people who were exposed to the anteater hadn't received rabies vaccination before, and they needed a dose of rabies antibodies as part of their treatment in addition to the rabies vaccine shots.

"This case also highlights the importance of continued public health efforts to expand awareness and education about rabies prevention and control," the authors said.

Originally published on Live Science. 

A camel attacked and killed two men outside of Memphis, Tennessee, after escaping a petting zoo Thursday (March 10).

Past inspection reports suggested the petting zoo called Shirley Farms, located in Obion County, had little water for the dromedary camels (Camelus dromedarius) and no barrier to protect the public or attendant present at the time of an inspection. After receiving a call about a loose camel attacking people, Obion County sheriffs arrived at the zoo, which is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Memphis.

"Deputies arrived on scene to find two unconscious victims on the ground at Shirley Farms and a camel still on the loose," the sheriffs wrote on their Facebook page. "Obion County Sheriff's Office, Lake County Sheriff's Office, Ridgely Police Department, Tennessee Highway Patrol, and the Lake County Rescue Squad were all on scene attempting to render aid and move the victims to a safe place."

The seemingly aggressive camel attacked one of the Obion sheriff's vehicles and then moved toward deputies who were trying to move a victim to EMS, they said. At this time, the officers had to "put the camel down for the safety of everyone on scene." The two male victims were pronounced dead at the scene.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture had noted in the past some animal care issues at Shirley Farms, according to inspection reports, as first highlighted by The Guardian. For instance, in a July 2019 report, the USDA said, "The only access to drinking water for the camels and zebra was a very small shallow muddy creek running through their enclosure. There was no access to any water troughs or other potable water source. Access to potable water is necessary to prevent dehydration and spread of disease/parasites." (Camels are adapted to living in dry climes, but they can only survive for about 

And a report on Oct. 3, 2018 read, "There is a barrier present between the public and the non-human primates but not for any of the other species present including a zebra, camels, llamas, alpacas, goats, sheep, pigs, fallow deer, kangaroo, zebu, rabbits, cavy, and prairie dogs. The only attendant noted present at the exhibit was the cashier who does not have a direct line of sight on any of the animals."

As for why the escaped camel was so aggressive, that is unknown; however, in general, camels show little aggressive behavior except between males during mating season, the San Diego Zoo says. Breeding season in the wild for dromedary camels takes place in the winter, or rainy season. And when males fight for access to females, they are known to bite at their opponent's legs and take his head in between their jaws in an effort to bring that competitor to the ground, according to the University of Michigan's Museum of Zoology.

Researchers reported a similar case in which a 25-year-old man was attacked by a camel under his care. The man was reportedly feeding the camel when it repeatedly bit the man's face and neck, resulting in an emergency room visit for what turned out to be in left eye evisceration and facial nerve injury, the researchers described in July 2019 in the journal Trauma Case Reports.

Originally published on Live Science.

Biology is the study of life. The word "biology" is derived from the Greek words "bios" (meaning life) and "logos" (meaning "study"). In general, biologists study the structure, function, growth, origin, evolution and distribution of living organisms.

Biology is important because it helps us understand how living things work and how they function and interact on multiple levels, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Advances in biology have helped scientists do things such as develop better medicines and treatments for diseases, understand how a changing environment might affect plants and animals, produce enough food for a growing human population and predict how eating new food or sticking to an exercise regimen might affect our bodies.

The basic principles of modern biology

Four principles unify modern biology, according to the book "Managing Science" (Springer New York, 2010): 

1. Cell theory is the principle that all living things are made of fundamental units called cells, and all cells come from preexisting cells.
2. Gene theory is the principle that all living things have DNA, molecules that code the structures and functions of cells and get passed to offspring.
3. Homeostasis is the principle that all living things maintain a state of balance that enables organisms to survive in their environment.
4. Evolution is the principle that describes how all living things can change to have traits that enable them to survive better in their environments. These traits result from random mutations in the organism's genes that are "selected" via a process called natural selection. During natural selection, organisms that have traits better-suited for their environment have higher rates of survival, and then pass those traits to their offspring.

The many branches of biology

Although there are only four unifying principles, biology covers a broad range of topics that are broken into many disciplines and subdisciplines.

On a high level, the different fields of biology can each be thought of as the study of one type of organism, according to "Blackie's Dictionary of Biology" (S Chand, 2014). For example, zoology is the study of animals, botany is the study of plants and microbiology is the study of microorganisms.

Within those broader fields, many biologists specialize in researching a specific topic or problem. For example, a scientist may study behavior of a certain fish species, while another scientist may research the neurological and chemical mechanisms behind the behavior.

There are numerous branches and subdisciplines of biology, but here is a short list of some of the more broad fields that fall under the umbrella of biology: 

Biochemistry: The study of the chemical processes that take place in or are related to living things, according to the Biochemical Society. For example, pharmacology is a type of biochemistry research that focuses on studying how drugs interact with chemicals in the body, as described in a 2010 review in the journal Biochemistry. 

Ecology: The study of how organisms interact with their environment. For example, an ecologist may study how honeybee behavior is affected by humans living nearby. 

Genetics: The study of heredity. Geneticists study how genes are passed down by parents to their offspring, and how they vary from person to person. For example, scientists have identified several genes and genetic mutations that influence human lifespan, as reported in a 2019 review published in the journal Nature Reviews Genetics.   

Physiology: The study of how living things work. Physiology, which is applicable to any living organism, "deals with the life-supporting functions and processes of living organisms or their parts," according to Nature. Physiologists seek to understand biological processes, such as how a particular organ works, what its function is and how it's affected by outside stimuli. For example, physiologists have studied how listening to music can cause physical changes in the human body, such as a slower or faster heart rate, according to the journal Psychological Health Effects of Musical Experiences. . 

The multidisciplinary nature of biology

Biology is often researched in conjunction with other fields of study, including mathematics, engineering and the social sciences. Here are a few examples:

Astrobiology is the study of the evolution of life in the universe, including the search for extraterrestrial life, according to NASA. This field incorporates principles of biology with astronomy. 

Bioarchaeologists are biologists who incorporate archaeological techniques to study skeletal remains and derive insights about how people lived in the past, according to George Mason University.

Bioengineering is the application of engineering principles to biology and vice versa, according to the University of California Berkeley. For example, a bioengineer might develop a new medical technology that better images the inside of the body, like an improved Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) that scans the human body at a faster rate and higher resolution, or apply biological knowledge to create artificial organs, according to the journal Cell Transplant.

Biotechnology involves using biological systems to develop products, according to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. For example, biotechnologists in Russia genetically engineered a better-tasting and more disease-resistant strawberry, which the researchers described in their 2007 study published in the journal Biotechnology and Sustainable Agriculture 2006 and Beyond.  

Biophysics employs the principles of physics to understand how biological systems work, according to the Biophysical Society. For example, biophysicists may study how genetic mutations leading to changes in protein structure impacts protein evolution, according to the Journal of the Royal Society

What do biologists do?

Biologists can work in many different fields, including research, healthcare, environmental conservation and art, according to the American Institute of Biological Sciences. Here are a few examples:

Research: Biologists can perform research in many types of settings. Microbiologists, for instance, may study bacterial cultures in a laboratory setting. Other biologists may perform field research, where they observe animals or plants in their native habitat. Many biologists may work in the lab and in the field — for example, scientists may collect soil or water samples from the field and analyze them further in the  lab, like at North Carolina University's Soil and Water Lab.

Conservation: Biologists can help with efforts in environmental conservation by studying and determining how to protect and conserve the natural world for the future. For example, biologists may help educate the public on the importance of preserving an animal's natural habitat and participate in endangered species recovery programs to stop the decline of an endangered species, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Healthcare: People who study biology can go on to work in healthcare, whether they work as doctors or nurses, join a pharmaceutical company to develop new drugs and vaccines, research the efficacy of medical treatments or become veterinarians to help treat sick animals, according to the American Institute of Biological Sciences.

Art: Biologists who also have a background in art have both the technical knowledge and artistic skill to create visuals that will communicate complex biological information to a wide variety of audiences. One example of this is in medical illustration, in which an illustrator may perform background research, collaborate with experts, and observe a medical procedure to create an accurate visual of a body part, according to the Association of Medical Illustrators.

Additional resources

If you’re curious about just how wide-reaching biology is, The University of North Carolina at Pembroke has listed a number of biology subdisciplines on their website. Interested in a career in biology? Check out some options at the American Institute of Biological Sciences website.

Bibliography

Lornande Loss Woodruff, “History of Biology”, The Scientific Monthly, Volume 12, March 1921, http://www.jstor.org/stable/6836.  

P.N. Campbell, “Biology in Profile: A Guide to the Many Branches of Biology”, Elsevier, October 2013. 

The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, “Biology Sub-disciplines”, October 2010. 

University of Minnesota Duluth, “What is Biology?”, January 2022. 

Eric J. Simon et al, “Campbell Essential Biology”, Pearson Education, January 2018. 

A pair of same-sex penguins hatched their first chick at Rosamond Gifford Zoo in New York and the parents are caring for it like pros.

The two male Humboldt penguins (Spheniscus humboldti) named Elmer and Lima were given an egg to incubate because the egg's biological parents have a history of accidentally breaking them. A chick hatched from the egg on Jan. 1 and is doing just fine with its same-sex parents, who keep the newborn penguin warm and fed. 

"It continues to be brooded and cared for by both Elmer and Lima, who are doing a great job," Ted Fox, the zoo's director, said in a statement. 

Related: Photos of flightless birds: All 18 penguin species 

Elmer and Lima paired up and built a nest for the breeding season. They didn't have any eggs of their own for obvious reasons, but they defended their territory and behaved as breeding penguins would, so zookeepers gave them a dummy egg to see whether they cared for it properly. 

"Some pairs, when given a dummy egg, will sit on the nest but leave the egg to the side and not incubate it correctly, or they'll fight for who is going to sit on it when," Fox said. "That's how we evaluate who will be good foster parents — and Elmer and Lima were exemplary in every aspect of egg care." The zoo swapped the dummy egg for a fertile egg and it hatched without any issues.

This isn't the first time zoos have found success using same-sex penguins as foster parents. Both male pairs and female pairs have previously hatched chicks at a number of zoos, such as in the Central Park Zoo in New York City and the Oceanogràfic Valencia aquarium in Spain. Two male black-footed penguins (Spheniscus demersusin) in DierenPark Amersfoort zoo in the Netherlands were apparently so keen to be parents that they stole an egg from another nearby pair to raise themselves, Live Science previously reported. 

Penguins of the same sex often come together as pairs. Male and female penguins share the same responsibilities when it comes to raising chicks, so there's no reason why same-sex pairs can't complete all the responsibilities of parenting, according to the Museum Studies Blog at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

Same-sex penguin pairs show that the idea of "family" is not species-specific and that in many cases, non-traditional families do a wonderful job of child-rearing, Fox said. 

Originally published on Live Science.

For as long as humans have confined animals, unwilling captives have found ways to break free. Sometimes these escapes end harmlessly, with animals quickly and quietly returned, and sometimes they cause havoc. Some animals gain long-lasting freedom but occasionally, these animal jailbreaks end in tragedy. From leopards on the lam in China to zebras roaming free in the "savanna" of Maryland, here are 8 of the wildest animal escapes of 2021.  

Leopards break out of Chinese zoo

In April, three leopards (Panthera pardus) escaped while their enclosure was cleaned at the Hangzhou Safari Park in eastern China. Handlers shot the first leopard with a tranquillizer two days later, the second leopard was caught with a wounded hind leg after being on the run for more than a month and the third leopard showed no intention of ever coming back. Chinese officials sent out 1,700 personnel and almost 1,000 drones to track the third leopard down to no avail, even releasing around 100 chickens as live bait. 

Meanwhile, residents living near the park received a warning message: "Leopard tracks have been discovered near mountain villages. Police are searching. Everyone please securely close doors and windows and do not go out," The Guardian reported at the time. No news outlets reported whether the leopard was caught but it's unlikely to have survived, as it never learned to hunt for itself in the zoo. 

Read more: After a Chinese zoo covered up a leopard escape, 100 chickens are searching for the big cat 

Zebras run wild in Maryland 

Three Zebras fled a Maryland exotic animal farm in August and spent months on the run, occasionally spotted by locals . In September, county officials found one of the zebras dead in an illegal snare trap. The other two zebras roamed free in Prince George's County until they were eventually caught in December, NPR reported. 

County officials did not give details on how they rounded up the striped equines but their capture did not involve the U.S. Department of Agriculture or Prince George's County animal services. The zebras' owner was charged with three counts of animal cruelty in October, NPR reported. 

Related: On the Lam: 10 of the Greatest Animal Escape Artists 

Florida sharks escape toxic algae

In August, sharks in Florida had to flee their coastal waters to escape a toxic algal bloom. The sharks, which included bonnethead sharks (Sphyrna tiburo), blacktip sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus), nurse sharks (Ginglymostoma cirratum) and lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris), moved into canals where local residents filmed them and shared the footage online. 

Experts think the sharks took to the canals to avoid red tide — the common name for Karenia brevis, a type of algae along the Florida coast that releases a neurotoxin and is causing widespread damage to the marine ecosystem there. 

Read more: Sharks hide in Florida canal to escape toxic red tide sweeping the coast 

Tiger in Houston neighborhood 

In May, a widely shared video on social media showed a young tiger (Panthera tigris) prowling a neighborhood in Houston, Texas. The tiger wore a collar and was led back inside a house by his presumed owner, Victor Hugo Cuevas, who allegedly later fled the scene with the tiger as police arrived, ABC News reported. Hugo Cuevas was taken into custody the next day but there was no tiger to be found.

After being missing for nearly a week, the nine-month-old tiger named India was turned over to the police by Hugo Cuevas' wife, Giorgiana. Hugo Cuevas was on bail for a murder charge when India went missing. His lawyer denied that Hugo Cuevas was the owner but said he helped care for the big cat, BBC News reported. India the tiger found a new home at the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch, an animal sanctuary in Texas. 

Related: Outrageous 'Tiger King' zoo owners say they help tigers. Conservation experts disagree. 

Camels on the streets  

A camel ditched a nativity scene in Kansas in December and fled down a highway. The camel was safely captured by Bonner Springs Police Department and Animal Control officers, but not before they pursued the rogue camel across golf courses in golf carts, ABC7 Eyewitness News reported. 

This was not the year's first camel escape. In November, eight camels and a llama managed to bolt from a circus in Italy. The camels and llama roamed the streets of Madrid until they were rounded up safely, The Independent, a British online newspaper, reported. The circus claimed the animals were released on purpose in an act of sabotage and pointed the finger at animal rights activists. Fun fact: a group of camels is called a "caravan," according to Insider. 

Related: Do camels really have water in their humps?

Runaway ram  

A New Zealand district council issued a wanted message on Facebook on June 16 — for a ram. The sheep "pulled the wool" over their eyes after escaping from the council's animal pound in New Plymouth, according to the Facebook post. 

The council initially captured the ram after complaints that he was trying to head butt walkers on a city path, the New Zealand media company Stuff reported. The ram was believed to be a pet named Duggy. Stuff published an update on the runaway ram on July 1. His whereabouts were unknown at the time and he has not since been recaptured by the district council.   

Related: Overgrown sheep 'Baarack' gets epic quarantine haircut, loses 78 lbs. of matted wool 

Cow slides to freedom 

A cow destined for the slaughterhouse escaped a Brazilian cattle ranch in November and found its way to a nearby waterpark, where it was filmed going down a water slide, the New York Post reported. The cow does not look comfortable or particularly stable on the water slide in the YouTube video released by Diário da Região, a Brazilian newspaper. However, the trip has saved the cow's life as the owner decided to keep it as a pet, according to the Orlando radio station 101.1 WJRR. 

The Brazilian cow was one of several slaughterhouse-bound cattle to seekfreedom in 2021. A herd of cattle escaped from a slaughterhouse in Pico Rivera, California in June, the Los Angeles Times reported. Someone accidentally left the slaughterhouse gate open and the cattle ran free through the Pico Rivera streets before heading into a residential area. They were all captured except for one cow that was shot dead by a sheriff’s deputy after it charged at a family. 

Related: This 20-inch-tall cow may be the smallest on Earth 

Cobra in North Carolina 

A privately owned cobra snaked its way out of a house in Raleigh, North Carolina and went on the run (slither) for three days in July. Police began the search after they were called by a citizen who spotted the black and white snake on a porch. The snake was gone by the time the police arrived, but they identified it from photos and videos as a zebra cobra (Naja nigricincta nigricincta), a species of spitting cobra from southern Africa, The Washington Post reported. To the relief of local residents, officials captured the snake by using glue traps, or boards covered in glue. Experts then restrained and removed the striped serpent, ABC11 Eyewitness News reported.

Related: It turns out most cobras are cannibals

Honorable mention: China's internet elephants

Perhaps the most famous animal adventure of 2021 is the story of the Yunnan elephants. Technically not an escape, the Asian elephants left their nature reserve in China, which they are free to do, but traveled an extraordinary distance of more than 310 miles (500 kilometers) across the Chinese province of Yunnan. Authorities monitored the elephants around the clock and they became an internet sensation in China, with millions of people tuning in to live streams to watch them. 

Scientists aren't sure why the elephants left their nature reserve. Some experts suggest it is due to shrinking rainforest habitat while others think the herd simply got lost. The elephants eventually returned home in September after a journey that lasted about 18 months, China Daily, a newspaper run by the Chinese Communist Party, reported.

Read more: Baby elephant abandoned by internet-famous herd has been rescued

Originally published on Live Science.

Nearly a century ago, a filmmaker captured a short black-and-white movie of the last known thylacine, also known as a Tasmanian tiger, as it padded around its enclosure at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Australia. Now, that long-dead animal, which his keepers named Benjamin, has "come back to life" in a new colorized version of the footage. 

In the enhanced footage, which the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) of Australia shared on YouTube on Sept. 6, Benjamin has yellowish fur striped with dark brown over his back and rump. When he gapes his astonishingly long jaws in a head-stretching yawn, his tongue and the inside of his mouth are a delicate shade of pink. 

Australian naturalist David Fleay captured the footage on 35-millimeter film in December 1933. The film and negative are in the NFSA's collection, and the negative was recently scanned at 4K resolution (horizontal resolution of at least 4,000 pixels) and then colorized under the supervision of film producer Samuel François-Steininger at Composite Films in Paris, NFSA representatives said in a statement.

Related: Australia's struggling marsupial: Photos of the Tasmanian devil

Colorizing the footage at such high resolution was challenging because the thylacine's fur was extremely dense, "and a lot of hair had to be detailed and animated," François-Steininger said in the NFSA statement. 

Experts with Composite Films referenced preserved thylacine skins in museums to make sure that the film's new colors were accurate. They also read scientific descriptions of the animals and reviewed thylacine illustrations and paintings. Then, they turned to digital tools and artificial intelligence algorithms to seamlessly integrate color into each frame of the negative. 

"More than 200 hours of work were needed to achieve this result," François-Steininger said.

While thylacines (Thylacinus cynocephalus) are commonly known as Tasmanian tigers or Tasmanian wolves, they were neither wolves nor tigers. Rather, these extinct animals were once the biggest carnivorous marsupials in the world, with adults weighing as much as 66 pounds (30 kilograms) and measuring up to 77 inches (195 centimeters) long from their noses to the tips of their long tails.

Tasmanian tigers once roamed across Australia, but by about 2,000 years ago, they were found only on the island of Tasmania, where approximately 5,000 thylacines remained by the time Europeans colonized the continent in the late 18th century, according to the National Museum of Australia. By the mid-1930s, sightings of thylacines in the wild were exceedingly rare. After Benjamin's lonely death at the Hobart zoo in 1936, attempts to capture another thylacine were unsuccessful, and the species was declared officially extinct in 1986, the National Museum of Australia reported. 

There are only 10 known film clips of living thylacines, and Fleay's footage is the longest, with a running time of about 80 seconds. But even a minute of filming may have been too much for Fleay's thylacine subject; shortly after the filmmaker captured the footage of Benjamin, the Tasmanian tiger bit Fleay on the buttocks, according to the NFSA.

Originally published on Live Science.

Sharks are iconic creatures, but researchers know remarkably little about them. For instance, although scientists know of more than 400 shark species, many of these big fish fare poorly in captivity, making it difficult to observe their mating, navigational, learning and social (or anti-social) behavior. Here are seven mysteries that scientists have yet to solve about sharks.

1. How do sharks navigate?

The open ocean has few visual cues, so how do sharks know where they're going? Some sharks travel great distances, such as the great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) that swim across the Indian Ocean, from the west coast of Australia to South Africa, said Andrew Nosal, a marine biologist and shark scientist at University of San Diego.

"It is an enduring mystery how sharks find their way through the ocean, which environmental cues they use, and how exactly those cues are detected and integrated," Nosal told Live Science.

Some sharks may use Earth's magnetic field to help them generate a mental map and compass, a May 2021 study published in the journal Current Biology suggested. In that study, researchers found that wild bonnetheads (Sphyrna tiburo) were able to orient themselves to that applied magnetic field, suggesting they use such fields to navigate.

Olfaction (smell) may be another navigational tool that some sharks use, according to a 2016 study by Nosal and colleagues on leopard sharks (Triakis semifasciata). But perhaps other factors — such as water temperature, sound and even vision (to some extent) — may help sharks navigate the deep, Nosal said.

2. How many species exist?

Researchers are still discovering new species of shark, especially from the deep ocean.

"The deep ocean is so vast and we've spent so little time studying it, that it feels like every time a scientist goes out and does some fishing or trolling or even goes to a fish market in a little known place, they find a new species of shark," Christopher Lowe, a professor of marine biology and director of the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach, told Live Science.

Moreover, sharks can range greatly in size, from as small as a cigar (like the American pocket shark) to as large as a school bus (such as the whale shark, a plankton feeder). They also live in diverse habitats, so a newfound species could be uncovered anywhere, Nosal said.

Related: Biggest sharks in the world

3. Why do sharks migrate?

It's clear that many sharks migrate seasonally, different tracking studies show. In other cases, as with the tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier), species have "partial migration, where some individuals have a propensity to be homebodies and others have a propensity to migrate," Lowe said. "And we don't know why."

Related: Why 10,000-plus sharks are hanging out in Florida waters

For the critically endangered school shark (Galeorhinus galeus), females have a three-year migration, returning to their reproductive spot every third year, likely to ovulate and gestate, a March 2021 tracking study led by Nosal in the Journal of Applied Ecology found.

However, why the majority of these migrations happen is still a mystery. Do sharks migrate for food, mating, temperature or perhaps a mixture of all three? It's hard to say. Only by studying vast numbers of a single species of shark can researchers find overall trends and perhaps tease out the reasons behind each migration, Nosal said.

4. What are they doing underwater?

It's anyone's guess what sharks are doing deep in the ocean, said Gregory Skomal, a fisheries biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. Trackers can tell scientists where the sharks are swimming, but once the fish dive deep into the water, it's hard to follow them without disrupting their behavior, he said. 

"We have plenty of data on white sharks that shows that some of them go out to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, wander around and dive down to depths as great as 3,000 feet (900 meters) every day," Skomal told Live Science. "But we don't have any clue what they're actually doing there."

Once, Skomal and his colleagues sent down an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to spy on great white sharks at night. The footage suggested that the sharks were resting. "I dare not say 'sleep' because it's hard for us to determine if and when these sharks sleep," Skomal said. 

In another case, researchers found that grey reef sharks (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) surf on updrafts of water, likely to save energy, according to a June 2021 study in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

5. What role do sharks play in the ecosystem?

Most people say that sharks are apex predators and are essential for maintaining balance in the food web. But not all sharks are at the top of that web, Nosal said.

"It's still a mystery exactly how sharks fit in," he said. "Surely they are important, and many species are indeed apex predators. But food webs are very complicated."

Many shark habitats are so damaged, it's hard to know how they functioned before disruptions, such as overfishing and habitat destruction, Lowe said. However, a few places around the world, including Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands (whose inhabitants were relocated due to the effects of nuclear bomb testing) give a hint as to how shark habitats should look, Lowe said. Because people essentially abandoned the islands, the ecosystems have recovered.

Lowe visited the Bikini Islands recently. Without downplaying the terrible effects of nuclear testing, "for me, it was this amazing experience because people hadn't been there, really, for 50 years. Even foreign fishermen would avoid that place because of their fear of the radiation," he said. "For me it was like Jurassic Park."

How smart are sharks?

6. How smart are sharks?

Studies on shark brains suggest the fish are complex beings, but in what ways are they smart?

Sharks don't have many folds in their forebrains (an area associated with decision making and reasoning in people), but they do have lots of folds in their cerebellum (a region associated with coordinating body movements), said Jelle Atema, a professor of biology at Boston University Marine Program. And shark brains may have unique abilities when it comes to smell. Atema has studied sharks' two well-developed olfactory bulbs, he said.

In a 2010 study in the journal Current Biology, Atema and his colleagues found that dusky smooth-hound sharks (Mustelus canis) turned toward odors stimulated first in their nares (nose), even if the second smell stimulation offered to them was higher in concentration. This trick may help the sharks stay connected to an odor plume, even if another smell in the busy ocean is of higher concentration, he said.

Anecdotally, Lowe has annually tracked tiger sharks to French Frigate Shoal in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, where the sharks chow down on blackfoot albatross chicks learning to fly. "We found that literally a week before the birds start to fledge, the sharks start showing up," Lowe said. "We observed some individuals eating four to six albatross chicks a morning." As soon as the last chicks fledge, the sharks leave, he said. That suggests sharks' "smarts" include detailed memories about the time and location of events, at least when it comes to food. 

7. Are sharks social animals?

Some sharks swim in schools of various sizes, and others gather in groups of hundreds to thousands. But it's unclear whether sharks are attracted to one another or whether they're simply in the same spot because it's a nice location with good temperatures and food availability, Nosal said.

"Almost certainly, it's going to be a combination of the two," he said. "But we don't really know the extent to which sharks are social animals. There's more and more evidence that they are, but the details are forthcoming."

Related: Surprise! Sharks have social lives. 

This story was originally published on June 29, 2016 and updated on July 16, 2021 to include additional studies and comments from Chris Lowe. 

Originally published on Live Science.

Zookeepers at two zoos in the Czech Republic set up big screens in chimpanzee enclosures to allow their bored chimps to interact with each other via video calls.

The FaceTime experiment was set up to help stimulate the chimps, who have missed interacting with visitors during lockdown.

The screens were installed March 11 in the empty viewing areas at Dvůr Králové  Safari Park and Brno Zoo. A two-way video call between the screens has allowed the apes from both zoos to see each other for up to 8 hours a day, although they were kept on mute.

So far, the chimps seem to be taking to the new technology. 

Related: 8 human-like behaviors of primates

"The campaign has been a great success, and we can't be happier and more proud," Michal Šťastný, a spokesperson for Dvůr Králové Safari Park, told Live Science. "Even other zoos have decided to take the concept and work with it."

Intelligent animals

Zoos have the challenging task of keeping the most sociable and intelligent animals engaged and fulfilled.

"Chimpanzees are very intelligent and therefore need a lot of stimuli to keep them active, agile and happy," Šťastný said. "The key is to keep coming up with new ways and sorts of enrichment every day to keep them busy."

Normally, zookeepers are constantly finding new ways to entertain the chimps and use a variety of toys, foods and equipment to challenge and entertain them. However, during lockdown, the zookeepers have found it hard to replicate the benefits the chimps get from interacting with human (and nonhuman) visitors.

"Chimps enjoy observing people and also their dogs, that are allowed in the zoo," Šťastný said. "Sometimes they enjoy little games with visitors, such as chasing them, howling at them and other regular chimp games."

Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the safari park has been closed for months. "The zoo has been closed for almost 200 days," Šťastný said. "This project shows people that the zoo does not sleep and the animals need our daily care."

Successful screen time

FaceTiming with other chimpanzees seems to have partially replaced the stimulation the apes got from interacting with visitors.

"Anything new is very interesting for them," Šťastný said. "Especially during the first days, the group would carefully inspect what was going on."

The chimps clearly knew they were using a video, because they were constantly looking to see what was behind the screen, Šťastný said. But the chimps also seemed to understand that chimps and keepers on the screen could see them, too.

"Some of them would bring their own food to show off to other chimps as they would with regular newbies," Šťastný said. "The chimps also seem to enjoy watching the zookeepers in Brno do their work."

All six chimps at Dvůr Králové engaged with the video call at some point, but one young female, known simply as M, seemed more into screen time than some of the older residents were.

"Sometimes the chimps seem so interested in the screen that they refuse to move from one enclosure to another when the keepers need to clean it," Šťastný said. 

Although FaceTiming has been a big hit at the zoos, the project is likely to end within the next two weeks, Šťastný said, because they anticipate the chimps will eventually get bored of it.

"The video streaming has been a big success, but in time, the chimp's attention is most likely going to fade," Šťastný said. "That is why the keepers keep coming [up] with new ways of enrichment every day."

Originally published on Live Science.

When humans flooded their zoo in South Africa, after months of lockdown, the African penguins couldn't have cared less, according to a new study. Meanwhile, the bubbly meerkats at a zoo in the U.K. seemed uplifted by their bipedal visitors. 

Slender-tailed meerkats (Suricata suricatta) interacted more positively with each other after humans returned to their exhibits, while African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) just carried on as if nothing had changed. 

Researchers studied the behavior of the animals before and after zoos reopened in the U.K. and South Africa to learn more about how lockdown affected them. Their results were published in the March issue of the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science.

"We can't say what the animals were feeling, but the positive behaviors that we observed (e.g. positive social interactions with each other and positive human-animal interactions) suggest the return of visitors was a positive and engaging experience for the meerkats," first author Ellen Williams, a lecturer in animal behavior and welfare at Harper Adams University in the U.K., told Live Science in an email. 

Related: Photos of flightless birds: All 18 penguin species 

More than 700 million people normally visit zoos and aquariums around the world each year, according to the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Both animal haunts, however, were forced to suddenly shut their gates in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving animals alone — except for the few staff that continued to work — in near-empty parks. 

Zookeepers began reporting that animals were suffering without the company of visitors. Animals like meerkats were "missing their human friends" in New Zealand zoos, The Guardian reported in April 2020, and staff at the Singapore Zoo were taking their African penguins for walks in May to help keep them stimulated without visitors, the Daily Mail reported.

These anecdotes led Williams and her colleagues to wonder how the animals were faring during lockdown. "Obviously, zoos are not usually closed for long periods of time and so this study offered us a unique opportunity to understand more about how the meerkats and African penguins were behaving when there were no visitors," Williams said. 

Meerkat keepers at Knowsley Safari Park, Twycross Zoo and Plantasia, all in the U.K., and penguin keepers at uShaka Sea World in South Africa monitored their animals during 5-minute windows and recorded behaviors for the researchers to study. They noted the behaviors the animals were performing, such as foraging for food, and where the animals were positioned in the enclosure, according to the study. 

The meerkats appeared to react well to visitors returning by interacting positively with each other more often with behaviors such as playing and grooming. They were, however, also more alert once visitors returned and spent longer in parts of their enclosure farthest from visitor viewing areas compared with during lockdown. The penguins behaved the same regardless of whether there were visitors at their zoo, suggesting they didn't care much either way. 

The research was designed as a pilot study, and the authors advocate for more research over a longer period to better understand the effect that zoo visitors have on the animals.

"Even the meerkats were potentially feeling a little isolated," Eduardo Fernandez, a senior lecturer in animal behavior, welfare and ethics at The University of Adelaide in Australia, told Live Science after reading the study. 

"I would say that like most good science, what this paper does is open up a whole lot more questions about where to go in the future with understanding what are both the positive and negative impacts that visitors can have on animals, and then vice versa," Fernandez said. 

Originally published on Live Science.

A rare white tiger cub was born at a zoo in Nicaragua just over a week ago and is being raised by humans after its mother rejected it, AFP news agency reported. 

The cub, named Nieve ("snow" in Spanish), is white, but both of its parents are orange Bengal tigers from India. So how did they produce a pale white cub? 

Related: In photos: The tigers of India's Bandhavgarh tiger reserve 

What are white tigers? 

White tigers are a rare form of the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), a tiger subspecies found in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. They are not a separate species. Rather, the pale color is the result of a recessive mutation in a single gene, meaning two copies of the gene are needed to express the trait, Live Science previously reported. 

In 2013, a team of Chinese researchers discovered that a pigment gene called SLC45A2 was responsible for the trait and published their findings in the journal Current Biology. White tigers carry a variation of this gene that prevents the production of red and yellow pigments, which combine to produce the orange coat worn by regular tigers. 

Without these pigments, tigers are born white. The variation does not inhibit black pigments, so the white tigers still have black stripes. 

Where do white tigers come from?

 White Bengal tigers were once found in the wild, but only rarely. The oldest recorded sighting on the Indian subcontinent dates back to the 1500s, and the last known free-ranging white tiger was shot in 1958, according to the 2013 study, published in Current Biology.   

Today, white tigers are found only in captive settings, such as zoos and safari parks. They appeared on Netflix’s popular "Tiger King" series for example. Almost all captive white tigers descend from a male named Mohan, who was captured from the wild in central India as a cub in 1951.

Mohan and his descendants were deliberately inbred to increase the chances that the gene variation carrying the white-fur mutation would be passed on. 

Inbreeding of white tigers kept the mutation alive in the captive population around the world. But this practice of deliberate inbreeding led to a range of health problems, such as premature death, stillbirth and deformities, the study authors wrote.

As zoos began to focus more on breeding endangered species as a means of safeguarding their wild populations, these health issues and the general lack of genetic diversity within the white tigers became a problem. 

In 2011, the Association of Zoos & Aquariums stated that its accredited institutions should not intentionally breed rare color "morphs," such as white tigers, because of their health issues and their impacts on breeding programs.  

The mutation, however, still exists in captive tigers, and because the trait is recessive, even individuals that are not white can carry the mutation. In the Nicaragua zoo, Nieve's great grandfather was white. Both of Nieve's parents carried the recessive gene, even though they were orange, but Nieve was born with white fur because she inherited a copy of the mutation from both parents.

Are white tigers endangered? 

Tigers are an endangered species, and their population is declining, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This includes Bengal tigers, of which there are fewer than 2,500 individuals left in the wild.  

As white tigers are only a variation of the Bengal tiger, and not a subpopulation or subspecies, they are not considered a separate group of endangered animals. However, the research team that identified the gene variation argued that this trait is worth protecting. 

"The white tiger represents part of the natural genetic diversity of the tiger that is worth conserving,” co-author Shu-Jin Luo, a conservation biologist at Peking University in China, said in a statement. Luo and her colleagues advocated a proper captive management program to maintain a healthy Bengal tiger population that includes both white and orange tigers. 

Originally published on Live Science.

The San Diego Zoo recently announced its newest (and arguably cutest) arrival: a newborn male pygmy hippo, born on April 9 to its 4-year-old pygmy hippo mama Mabel.

Within hours of birth, the very tubby youngster was standing up and following its mother around, toddling after her in the hippos' indoor habitat, zoo representatives said in a statement.

The baby, which has not yet been named, weighed 12.4 lbs. (5.6 kilograms) at birth and now weighs about 25 lbs. (11 kg). This is the first successful pygmy hippo birth at the zoo in more than three decades, offering hope for the future of this endangered species, according to the statement.

Related: Photos: World's cutest baby wild animals

In the maternity "ward" of the hippo habitat, the calf now has access to a pool, after first testing the waters in a shallow tub. Over the last few weeks, the baby demonstrated that it was able to close its nostrils and hold its breath underwater.

As their name implies, pygmy hippos (Choeropsis liberiensis) are significantly smaller than river hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius), according to the San Diego Zoo. Adult pygmy hippos weigh about 350 to 600 lbs. (160 to 270 kg), while river hippos can weigh up to 10 times more. The heads of pygmy hippos are also blunter and rounder than those of their bigger hippo cousins, and pygmy hippos' eyes are located on the sides of their heads rather than at the top.

Pygmy hippos often look shiny and slick even when they aren't in the water, thanks to a pinkish fluid called "blood sweat" that oozes from their skin. This liquid acts like a moisturizing sunscreen; it keeps their skin from drying and cracking in the heat and protects the hippos from sunburn, according to the zoo.

Fewer than 2,500 pygmy hippos remain in their native habitats in West Africa, where they live in forest rivers in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire.

Mabel and her calf will remain separated from the calf's father, a 13-year-old named Elgon, as pygmy hippos do not typically live together as families, zoo representatives said. In about a month, the baby and his mother will emerge from their seclusion in the indoor enclosure and will begin taking turns with Elgon to spend time in the main hippo habitat.

• Images of an ancient hippo ancestor
• Cute alert! Adorable photos of giant panda triplets
• Cute clouded leopard cubs born in Denver (photo)

Originally published on Live Science.

A family of orangutans and a romp of river otters are the furriest of friends, according to zookeepers in Belgium who purposefully arranged for the primates' and mustelids' habitats to intersect. 

Photos of these curious bedfellows went viral after Pairi Daiza, a privately owned zoo and botanical garden located in Belgium's province of Hainaut, recently posted them on Facebook. 

"The presence of a family of Asian small-clawed otters in [the orangutans'] territories is not a coincidence," Mathieu Goedefroy, Pairi Daiza spokesperson, told Live Science in an email. Orangutans (genus Pongo) share 97% of their DNA with humans, and like their Homo sapiens' cousins, orangutans "must be entertained, occupied, challenged and kept busy mentally, emotionally and physically at all times," Goedefroy said.

Related: In photos: Adorable orangutan shows off knot-tying skills

So, the zoo chose to let the otter family (Amblonyx cinereus) live in the river that runs through the orangutan habitat. 

"The otters really enjoy getting out of the water on the orangutan island to go and play with their big, furry friends," Goedefroy said. "It makes life more fun and interesting for both animal species, which makes it a very successful experiment."

The unlikely animal friends even warmed the heart of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who tweeted: "Oh my god. My two favourite animals, together, having story time. And if you know this is photoshopped, don't tell me, because I don't want to know."

The zoo has five orangutans: a male and female couple named Gempa and Sinta, as well as a family of three — the 24-year-old daddy Ujian, 15-year-old mommy Sari and their 4-year-old son Berani, who arrived at Pairi Daiza in 2017 after they moved from Heidelberg Zoo in Germany. 

The father-son duo Ujian and Berani have already "developed a very special bond with their neighbors," Goedefroy noted. 

In addition to playing with their otter friends, the orangutans, a subspecies from Sumatra, have a number of other enrichment programs, "where our keepers entertain them all day long with mind games, riddles, puzzles and other stuff to train their intelligence," Goedefroy said.

All three species of orangutan are critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This includes the Bornean (P. pygmaeus) and Sumatran (P. abelii) orangutans, as well as the Tapanuli orangutan (P. tapanuliensis), which lives in the Batang Toru forests of Sumatra, Indonesia, and was confirmed as a distinct species in 2017. There are fewer than 800 known P. tapanuliensis orangutans in the wild, the IUCN reported. 

In total, the orangutan population on Borneo and Sumatra stands at about 71,820 individuals, according to a 2016 report by the IUCN. These orangutans are endangered, in large part, because of deforestation (from palm oil exploitation in their forests) and poaching. 

In the late 1990s, orangutans experienced catastrophic habitat loss in southern Borneo because of the Mega Rice Project. During this project, people tried to replace 2 million acres (1 million hectares) of forest with rice crops to help them achieve food self-sufficiency, according to Pairi Daiza's website. However, the project didn't work; no rice grew in the forest soil. 

"While the project was quickly abandoned, the forest still bears the scars: It is impossible for the native vegetation to return to these dried-out lands," Pairi Daiza said. The zoo has now raised funds to help plant 11,000 trees in the devastated forests of Borneo, Goedefroy said.

• 10 Times animals behaved oddly in 2018
• Image gallery: Otter pups get a checkup
• Daring duos: Unlikely animal friends

Originally published on Live Science.

A pair of mated male penguins in a Dutch zoo were so eager for offspring that they stole an egg from another pair of penguins.

Two male black-footed penguins (Spheniscus demersus, also known as African penguins) at DierenPark Amersfoort zoo in the Netherlands were recently found incubating a purloined egg. Their nest — holding the stolen egg — was near a nest that belonged to a male and female penguin couple, zoo representatives said in a statement.

Hatching season was already underway for the zoo's penguin community, and the males likely swiped the egg from their breeding neighbors during "an unguarded moment," according to the statement. 

Related: 'Gay' Animals: 10 Alternative Lifestyles in the Wild

Some chicks in the zoo's penguin brood have already hatched, and animal caregivers are keeping a close eye on the male couple, who are taking turns warming their ill-gotten egg, DutchNews reported. But there's a chance the couples' dreams of parenthood may soon be dashed, as the stolen egg may not have been fertilized, according to DutchNews.

Prior to the Dutch penguins' egg-snatching antics, other same-sex penguin couples have canoodled their way into hearts around the world. Roy and Silo, male chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarcticus) who lived at the Central Park Zoo in New York City, were partners for six years; Skip and Ping, male king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus), consciously coupled at Zoo Berlin; and Sphen and Magic, young male gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua), found love in the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium in Australia. 

All three same-sex couples fostered eggs; Silo and Roy hatched their chick in 2004, while Sphen and Magic's chick — "Baby Sphengic" — hatched on Oct. 19, 2018, the aquarium announced on Twitter. But poor Skip and Ping remain childless: Despite their attention, their unfertilized egg "burst open" on Sept. 2, German news site The Local reported.

Penguins aren't the only birds that form homosexual relationships. More than 130 birds species are known for homosexual behavior, which can include complex courtship rituals, genital contact and even nesting together for years, Live Science previously reported. 

• In Photos: The Emperor Penguin's Beautiful and Extreme Breeding Season
• Charming Chick Photos: Antarctica's Baby Penguins
• Photos of Flightless Birds: All 18 Penguin Species

Originally published on Live Science.

Rocks might not sound like a delectable meal to most life-forms, but it's on the menu for a newly identified species of a plump, bizarre-looking clam. 

However, though this clam consumes limestone, its discoverers aren't sure if the creature snags any actual food from those rocks. For instance, do the bacteria in the clam's gut help to break down the rock and release nutrients?

"We want to look at the symbionts, the bacteria that live inside these animals, to see if they are providing any nutrition, and this is an area of research we are currently focusing on," said study lead researcher Reuben Shipway, a postdoctoral researcher at the Marine Science Center at Northeastern University in Massachusetts. [In Photos: Spooky Deep-Sea Creatures]

The newfound clam is a type of shipworm, the name for a group of clams so called because they devour wood, especially from ships. Wood is hard to eat, but adaptations help these clams burrow into the material; those adaptations include "small rows of small, sharp teeth on the shell and a special organ for wood storage and digestion, called the caecum," Shipway told Live Science.

Every known shipworm eats wood, so Shipway and his colleagues were surprised when Philippine locals in Bohol province told them in 2018 about a freshwater shipworm that ate rocks. Locally, it's known as "antingaw," and young mothers eat it because they think it will help them lactate, he said. (The newfound species was noted in a recent expedition led by French biologist Philippe Bouchet at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, but it was the locals who helped the new team locate the mysterious shipworm, the researchers said.)

Unlike other shipworms, the newly named Lithoredo abatanica (which roughly means "rock shipworm from the Abatan River") has lost all its wood-boring adaptations, including the caecum, Shipway said. Rather, this clam's "shell has these really large, shovel-like projections for digging into rock," he said.

The creature's shell crunches the rock, which the animal then eats, digests and expels as a fine sand. "There are a small number of animals that do ingest rock — for example, birds use gizzard stones to aid digestion," Shipway said. "But Lithoredo abatanica is the only known animal that eats rock through burrowing."

He described the rock-eating clams as "pretty bizarre — they are plump, translucent, worm-like clams." Most of the specimens the researchers collected were 4 inches (10 centimeters) long, but a few individuals were much larger.

"When I was diving in the river, I saw burrows that were over 2 feet [60 cm] in length!" Shipway said. "So, there may be some absolute monsters living deep in the rock."

By eating rock, L. abatanica is literally changing the course of the river, Shipway added. "These burrows also provide habitat for countless other species living in the river, including crabs and fish," he said. "This is a very rare, yet very important process in freshwater environments."

The study was published online today (June 19) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

• Amazing Mollusks: Images of Strange & Slimy Snails
• See 15 Crazy Animal Eyes — Rectangular Pupils to Wild Colors
• Deep-Sea Fish: A Gallery of What We Catch

Originally published on Live Science.

The realization that giant sea spiders have Swiss cheese-like holes in their exoskeletons has shed light on a decades-old mystery about how underwater creatures living in the polar oceans and deep abysses got so spookily huge.

Researchers found that pores cover the legs of giant sea spiders, and, as these sea spiders grow, their exoskeletons become more and more holey.

"The exoskeletons of the really big ones look almost like Swiss cheese," Caitlin Shishido, a doctoral student of zoology at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, said in a statement. [Gallery: Unique Life at Antarctic Deep-Sea Vents]

The scientists discovered this holey phenomenon after testing a hypothesis about how gigantism develops in cold-water marine critters. The idea, known as the oxygen-temperature hypothesis, suggests that animals living in extremely cold waters can grow to extraordinary sizes because they have slow metabolisms. Moreover, cold water can hold more oxygen than warm water can, so there is plenty of oxygen available in cold-water areas.

To test this hypothesis, the researchers went to McMurdo Station in Antarctica to study sea spiders, the cousins of land spiders. The team already knew that sea spiders are "skin breathers," meaning they absorb oxygen through their legs.

"The idea is, it's a lot of work for animals to capture oxygen and bring it all the way to their cells," Shishido said. "It's a much bigger job for large animals than for small ones. If cold temperatures make you need less oxygen, you can grow to a larger size."

In addition, Shishido and her colleagues wondered whether warming temperatures in the polar regions would harm these giant animals, which are adapted to live in cold waters. To learn more, the researchers took species from two genuses of sea spider — Colossendeis and Ammothea — and put them in sea spider boot camp, making them exercise like fanatic bodybuilders.

The exercises were fairly straightforward; the researchers flipped the spiders upside down and counted the number of times the creatures were able to right themselves in varying temperatures, ranging from the spiders' usual 28.7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 1.8 degrees Celsius) to 48.2 F (9 C).

Surprisingly, the giant sea spiders kept pace with the smaller animals from both genuses at every temperature.

"We were amazed that not only could the giant animals survive at much higher temperatures than they usually see, but they dealt with warm temperatures just like the smaller ones," Shishido said. "That's not supposed to happen; larger animals should exhaust their oxygen supply and run out of gas much sooner than small ones."

The scientists were mystified until they used microscopes to get a better look at the sea spiders' legs. It was then that they realized that the larger the sea spiders grew, the more porous their exoskeletons became, which allowed the spiders to absorb greater amounts of oxygen.

This means there are many giant sea spiders walking around with Swiss cheese-like legs. While most land spiders have leg spans of just an inch or two (a few centimeters), sea spiders that live in polar regions and abysses can have leg spans of more than 28 inches (70 centimeters), the researchers wrote in the study, which was published online April 10 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

However, it's unclear how these eight-legged giants would fair in permanently warm waters, because this experiment exposed the sea spiders to only short-term warmth. That said, these giants may not be as vulnerable to warming oceans as once thought, the researchers noted.

• See 15 Crazy Animal Eyes — Rectangular Pupils to Wild Colors
• Image Gallery: Tiny Crustaceans Found in Fossil Reef
• Antarctica: The Ice-Covered Bottom of the World (Photos)

Originally published on Live Science.

A monkey in a Finland zoo recently gained a lot of attention on social media for her unusually "buff" body, but she isn't quite as muscular as she appeared.

In the photo, the primate — a female white-faced saki monkey (Pithecia pithecia) named Bea — crouches on a branch in her enclosure at the Helsinki Zoo. Her arms, chest and legs look exceedingly bulky in contrast to her small, glowering face, making her seem as heavily muscled as a steroid-infused bodybuilder.

But in reality, the monkey's muscles aren't all that impressive, and the suggestion of bulk came from Bea fluffing up her abundant fur, zoo representatives told Live Science. [8 Humanlike Behaviors of Primates]

White-faced sakis are native to Brazil and parts of Venezuela and Indonesia, spending most of their time in rainforest canopies at heights up to 82 feet (25 meters) above the ground, according to the University of Michigan's Museum of Zoology.

Bea, the leader of the zoo's white-faced saki monkey troop, was born at the Helsinki Zoo and is 9 years old, zookeeper Merja Wahlroos told Live Science in an email. On average, adult female monkeys weigh about 3 to 4 pounds (1.4 to 1.9 kilograms) with a body length of (32 to 40 centimeters), "and the tail is usually as long as the body," Wahlroos said.

And even though Bea hasn't been measured recently, her size is likely "in the bigger end of the scale," Wahlroos estimated. Nevertheless, Bea's apparent burliness is not the result of rigorous weightlifting and chugging protein shakes; rather, it's an illusion created by her thick, furry coat, zoo representatives explained in a tweet.

Finnish photographer Santeri Oksanen snapped the image in February; he was visiting the zoo to practice taking pictures of wildlife, which he later shared on Flickr, he told Live Science in an email. As Oksanen stood outside the monkey troop's habitat, Bea struck "this epic pose" and surveyed her territory; at that moment, Oksanen captured the photo that later went viral.

"Bea's expression couldn't had been any better," Oksanen said.

Little is known about saki monkey's social habits in the wild, but in captivity the monkeys usually live in small family groups of four individuals, and the most common group is parents and offspring, Wahlroos explained. But saki monkeys can also form groups of multiple males or females that contain up to 12 monkeys. Males generally dominate groups in captive populations, but the group hierarchy is flexible, and sometimes females — like Bea — assume leadership, Wahlroos said.

As for Bea's fabulous floofiness, many types of animals fluff their fur (or feathers) to appear bigger and more intimidating when threatened. However, saki monkeys are typically not aggressive toward each other, and unusual fluffiness such as Bea's display "is usually only to show off to other group members," Wahlroos said.

"The mighty appearance might be enhanced by shaking a branch vigorously," she added.

• Photos: Adorable and Amazing Guenon Monkey Faces
• Precious Primates: Images of Chimeric Monkeys
• Image Gallery: Sneezin' Snub-Nosed Monkeys

Originally published on Live Science.

Why hasn't Earth received any messages from extraterrestrials yet? Perhaps because we're already unwitting inhabitants in a so-called galactic zoo.

This was one of the scenarios a group of international researchers explored on March 18 at a meeting organized by the nonprofit organization Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI). The gathering, which took place at the City of Science and Industry museum in Paris (Cité), brought together about 60 scientists who research the possibility of communication with hypothetical intelligent extraterrestrials.

There, they debated "The Great Silence" — why aliens haven't contacted us — exploring one possibility known as the "zoo hypothesis." First proposed in the 1970s, it describes Earth as a planet that is already under observation by "galactic zookeepers" who are deliberately concealing themselves from human detection, Forbes reported. [9 Strange, Scientific Excuses for Why Humans Haven't Found Aliens Yet]

"When we try to better understand the universe, the question of whether we are alone is unavoidable," meeting attendee Florence Raulin-Cerceau, an associate professor at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, told Paris-Match.

That Earth would be the lone planet to evolve and host intelligent life among potentially billions of planets in our galaxy alone seems very unlikely. But if there are intelligent extraterrestrials out there, where are they, and why haven't we found them yet? This conundrum, posed in 1950 by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, is known as the Fermi Paradox, and it still stymies experts today.

Fermi didn't live to see evidence of the first exoplanets, which were discovered decades after his death. Since 2014, NASA's Kepler space telescope has confirmed the existence of hundreds of distant worlds, and its findings have hinted at potentially 2,300 more. And yet, despite these exciting exoplanet discoveries, contact with extraterrestrials seems no closer now than it did in Fermi's day.

Under alien observation?

One explanation that scientists explored at the METI meeting, is that aliens are aware of Earth and are observing us as we would observe animals kept in a zoo, METI President Douglas Vakoch said in a workshop. If this is the case, humans should increase their efforts to create messages capable of reaching our "keepers," to demonstrate our intelligence, Vakoch explained.

For example, if a captive zebra were to suddenly tap out a pattern of prime numbers, humans would be required to re-evaluate their understanding of zebra cognition, "and we would be compelled to respond," according to EarthSky.

But what if we're not part of a vast alien zoo — what if, instead, humanity has been evaluated by alien civilizations, and subsequently "quarantined" from our galactic neighbors?

It's possible that extraterrestrials are actively isolating us from contact for our own good, because interacting with aliens would be "culturally disruptive" for Earth, meeting co-chair Jean-Pierre Rospars, honorary research director at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), said in a workshop.

Of course, it's also likely that we haven't heard from aliens because they're locked under a layer of ice in subsurface oceans; trapped on massive "super-Earth" worlds by gravity's intense pull; or dead because their advanced civilizations have already destroyed themselves — as humanity might — through runaway consumption of their planet's natural resources.

Though, maybe if we want to hear from aliens we just need to relax and be patient. After all, Earth has been around for 4.6 billion years, while extraterrestrial research is less than 100 years old, Paris-Match reported.

• Greetings, Earthlings! 8 Ways Aliens Could Contact Us
• 7 Huge Misconceptions about Aliens
• 4 Places Where Alien Life May Lurk in the Solar System

Originally published on Live Science.

The Oregon Zoo recently posted a series of tweets that included incredible animal X-rays, showcasing the beauty of the zoo's animals on the inside.

From the wings of a flying fox, to a toucan's skull, to the spindly legs of a flamingo, animals' incredible skeletal adaptations are pictured in eerie black and white, offering a Halloween-worthy peek at the bones under layers of skin, muscle and fat. [See X-ray images of the Oregon Zoo animals]

Some of the images show the skeletons in their entirety. Inside the undulating body of a ball python (Python regius), a lengthy chain of vertebrae is framed by ribs running almost the entire length of its sinuous form. Meanwhile, a Rodrigues flying fox (Pteropus rodricensis) lifts its wings overhead, revealing the elongated finger bones inside them.

Other images zoom in for a closer look at animals' exceptional adaptations. In a beaver's broad, flat tail, a line of vertebrae extends almost to the tail's tip, with the individual bones growing ever-smaller as they progress away from the pelvis. An X-ray of the skull of a Cape porcupine (Hystrix africaeaustralis) reveals the heft of its molars and a dramatic curve to its powerful incisors.

To get these extraordinary images, the veterinary staff turned to digital radiography, a type of X-ray imaging that uses digital image-capture technology instead of printing images to film. Digital radiology enables veterinarians and technicians to adjust the exposure in their images after taking them; this means that image capture can happen more quickly, and the animals can spend less time under anesthesia, zoo representatives wrote in a blog post.

The process also allows veterinarians to create a digital archive and easily share X-rays with animal caregivers at other zoos, according to the post. But perhaps most important, digital X-rays provide detailed, high-resolution images, "which helps ensure excellent health care for the animals," zoo representatives said in a statement.

"It also provides a unique glimpse inside the world of wildlife," they added.

Originally publishedon Live Science.

Spooky, scary skeletons

Are x-rays of animals gorgeous or creepy? Maybe a little of both. The Oregon Zoo recently captured a series of Halloween-ready X-rays showcasing some of their animals. Here, a three-banded armadillo displays its built-in suit of armor.

Ball python

For animals at the Oregon Zoo, X-rays are part of their annual checkup with the zoo veterinarian. The flexible spine inside a sinuous adult ball python can include around 200 vertebrae and 400 ribs.

Bearded dragon

Digital X-rays help zookeepers monitor animal health. This bearded dragon has a normal skeleton, but lack of light and certain nutrients can lead to a thinning of bone density in these reptiles, a condition known as metabolic bone disease.

Bufflehead duck

Though it's hard to tell from its skeleton, bufflehead ducks have a fluffy covering of feathers that makes them look endearingly pudgy.

Cape porcupine

Do those pointy incisors look like the teeth of a fearsome carnivore? They're not. They belong to the Cape porcupine, an omnivorous mammal that is the largest rodent in Africa. These porcupines mostly dine on plants, though they are also known to eat carrion and gnaw on bones.

Dwarf mongoose

Though this X-ray appears to have captured a dwarf mongoose mid-leap, the anesthetized animal is merely lying on a table. Digital X-ray technology is faster than traditional X-ray techniques, enabling veterinarians to shorten the time that their X-ray subjects must spend under anesthesia.

Rodrigues flying fox

The Rodrigues flying fox is a type of large fruit bat native to the island of Rodrigues, east of Madagascar. Its fur, invisible in this X-ray, is typically chestnut brown, with a mantle of golden fur covering its shoulders, neck and head.

American beaver

The wide, flat tail of a beaver is mostly fleshy padding, as this X-ray reveals.

Golden eagle

While this view of a golden eagle's butt and legs isn't very dignified, it does highlight the impressive claws that this predatory bird uses to snatch its prey. While its feathers are invisible in the image, golden eagles are known for having long tail feathers that extend farther behind the bird than its head extends up front.

Meller' chameleon

One of this chameleon's most distinctive traits — a "horn" sticking out over its nose — is almost invisible in the X-ray. These large chameleons can grow up to 2 feet long (0.6 meters) and weigh over a pound (0.5 kilogram).

Amur tiger

"How do you X-ray a 320-pound Amur tiger? Very carefully, of course," representatives of the Oregon Zoo wrote in a blog post. Amur tigers were once common in the Korean Peninsula, northern China and eastern Russia, but today only about 540 individuals remain in the wild.

Toco toucan

Also known as the common toucan, the Toco toucan is the biggest and best-known of all the toucans — a group that includes more than 40 species.

Fat-tailed gecko

An X-ray of a fat-tailed gecko makes it easy to see how the animal got its name, with a thin chain of tail bones cushioned by plenty of flesh.

Flamingo

The digital X-ray system used by the Oregon Zoo "produces images with great detail and clarity. It helps ensure excellent health care for the animals, and it also provides a unique glimpse inside the world of wildlife," zoo representatives said in a statement.

Hedgehog

Veterinarians use X-rays to monitor the health of zoo animals. While a dark blob inside the gut of this hedgehog may look alarming, it is actually just a harmless ball of gas.

Police in Los Angeles are on the lookout for a man who was recently captured on video trespassing at the LA Zoo and getting dangerously hands-on with a hippopotamus.

In the footage, posted to Twitter on Aug. 7, the unidentified man is seen climbing over a railing into a restricted area near the zoo's hippo enclosure. He then leans close to the two animals standing by the wall — a mother and daughter pair named Mara and Rosie — and smacks 4-year-old Rosie on her bottom, the Los Angeles Times reported.

After the slap, Rosie flinches, and Mara appears startled; the assailant jumps back over the railing and flees. The incident came to the attention of zoo administrators after the video was widely shared on social media last week. And although police received a trespassing report, no official charges have been filed, LAPD representatives told ABC News. [Photos: World's Cutest Baby Wild Animals]

Even so, the butt slap was a dangerous move, April Spurlock, a representative of the L.A. Zoo, told Live Science in an email.

"Any unauthorized interaction with an animal is unsafe for the animal and potentially unsafe for the patron," Spurlock said. "It is never okay to take an animal by surprise and physically make contact with an animal in a way that could be harmful."

Unauthorized entry into animal enclosures at the zoo is prohibited by state law, and may be punishable as a misdemeanor or an infraction, Spurlock added.

Viewed more than 440,000 times on Twitter, the footage shows the man slowly reaching down to deliver a swift slap to Rosie's rear, after which he leaps over the rail and turns to face the camera, seemingly raising his arms victoriously as he jogs away.

"Hippos do have thick skin, but it is also very sensitive," Spurlock told Live Science. The slap would likely have stung temporarily, and Rosie has exhibited no behavioral changes since then, Spurlock said. However, actions such as this can undermine the delicate trust that zoo professionals work hard to establish with the animals that they care for, she explained.

While hippos may appear amusingly lumbering and awkward, they have sharp tusks and can move very quickly; they are considered to be one of the most dangerous animals in Africa, Michelle Curley, a representative of the Cincinnati Zoo, told Live Science. The Cincinnati Zoo's resident hippo, an endearing 1-year-old named Fiona, weighs about 865 lbs. (392 kilograms) and is still growing. And even though she has been around people since she was born, her keepers still observe strict safety rules during their interactions with her, Curley said.

At the LA Zoo, Mara gave birth to Rosie in 2014, and Rosie was the first hippo calf born at the zoo in 26 years, officials said in a statement that year. At 4 years old, Rosie is now just about fully grown — and an adult female hippo can weigh as much as 3,000 lbs. (1,400 kg).

Special tours at the LA Zoo offer a behind-the-scenes look at the habitat and habits of hippos and other wild animals. However, these encounters take place under the close supervision of zoo officials and animal caregivers, and guests are never permitted to enter animals' enclosures on their own, zoo officials said in the statement.

Mara and Rosie were unharmed by the experience. Nevertheless, after zoo officials found out about the video, "No Trespassing" signs were installed near the hippos to deter copycat rule breakers — for the protection of visitors as much as for the animals, officials said in a statement.

"It is a privilege to observe these rare and endangered species, but they are still wild animals and their space must be respected at all times," they said.

Original article on Live Science.

Nine animals have died since an escaped jaguar attacked them at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans on Saturday (July 14). But the jaguar didn't actually eat the animals — including red foxes, alpacas and an emu — so why did it attack so many?

The answer? The 3-year-old male jaguar likely went into a mode known as "surplus killing," in which a predator kills more prey than it can possibly eat at one time, said Howard Quigley, executive director of the jaguar program at Panthera, a global wildcat-conservation organization, who isn't involved with the jaguar at the Audubon Zoo.

"It just means that they go into a kind of excess killing mode," Quigley told Live Science. "There's evidence of mountain lions getting into sheep pens and killing 20 or 30 sheep. When they get the fight reaction, they go and make the kill, and if there's another accessible prey, they go and make the kill again." [On the Lam: 10 of the Greatest Animal Escape Artists]

In the wild, if a jaguar is stalking a deer, tapir or peccary (a pig-like animal), the big cat will make the kill and any other nearby animals will run away — basically to save themselves from becoming the jaguar's second meal, Quigley said.

"But in the confines of a zoo, where most of these animals are visible, the jaguar would attack one and move to the next one and the next one," Quigley said. "It's basically because most predators are hardwired to make a quick kill. And so, when there's a prey that's vulnerable, whether they [the jaguars] have a prey sitting in front of them or not, they [revert back] to that natural reaction, which is to make that kill."

At a news conference on Saturday, Joel Hamilton, the Audubon Zoo's vice president and animal curator, suggested that the jaguar attacked so many animals because it was defending its territory.

"He's a young male jaguar — he was doing what jaguars do," Hamilton said. "Certainly, his behavior wasn't out of the ordinary for that kind of an animal."

But given that two of the animal species were prey — the emu and the alpacas — it's unlikely that the jaguar killed them to defend his territory, Quigley said. However, it is possible that the jaguar pounced on the foxes for that reason, as they are also predatory carnivores, he said.

"You'll see mountain lions that kill coyotes and just leave them, for instance," Quigley said. "[But] I'm not sure how often jaguars might kill a fox in the wild and not eat it."

Scientists have documented jaguars eating at least 40 different types of animals, including deer, peccary, monkeys, birds, frogs, fish, alligators and small rodents. There are cases of jaguars eating foxes, Quigley said, but jaguars aren't known to eat emu — simply because their habitats don't overlap (emus are native to Australia, and jaguars live in the Americas).

Moreover, jaguars don't eat alpacas, which live high in the mountains — jaguars rarely go above 4,000 feet (1,200 meters), Quigley said. [In Photos: A Jaguar Takes Down a Caiman in Brazil]

The escape

A preliminary investigation suggests that a "break in the stainless-steel cable barrier on the roof of the exhibit" potentially allowed enough space for the jaguar to escape, the Audubon Zoo said in a news statement today (July 16).

The jaguar, named Valerio, was born in March 2015 at the San Diego Zoo and transferred to the Audubon Zoo in October 2017, the Audubon Zoo said in the statement. The zoo became aware of his unauthorized whereabouts when a staff member spotted the big cat at 7:20 a.m. local time on Saturday, before the zoo was open to the public for the day.

A team of veterinarians then sedated the cat and returned him to his nighttime enclosure by 8:15 a.m. No humans were injured during the jaguar's escapade.

It's no surprise that the jaguar found the weakness in its enclosure, Quigley said, as it's common for predators to constantly monitor their environments.

"Predators are always looking for vulnerability," Quigley said. "In this particular case, it looks like the jaguar saw the vulnerability and made an escape."

Original article on Live Science.

It's incredibly rare to catch a glimpse of an African flamingo on the Texas coast, but if you do, it's definitely Flamingo No. 492. The conspicuous pink bird has been on the run from the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas, since escaping 13 years ago. Sightings of No. 492 have been rare, but the fugitive flamingo was spotted last month in Lavaca Bay, Texas, about halfway between Houston and Corpus Christi, The New York Times reported.

No. 492, along with 39 other flamingos, was sent to the Sedgwick County Zoo from Tanzania in 2003. Typically, zoos prevent flamingos from flying by amputating a part of their wing when they are newborns — a part that hasn't yet developed sensation. But the flamingos from Tanzania arrived at the zoo as adults, so curators there decided to clip the birds' feathers instead, as a more humane solution to keep the animals grounded, the Times reported. [In Photos: On the Lam: 10 of the Greatest Animal Escape Artists]

Clipped feathers grow back, however, and if they're not kept short, the bird will regain its ability to fly. So, in June 2005, flamingos No. 492 and No. 347 took advantage of their unclipped wings and flew out of their enclosure, the Times reported. The pair settled in a drainage canal where they evaded capture until a large thunderstorm forced them to separate. No. 347 went north to Michigan and hasn't been seen since.

But No. 492 moved south to Texas, where the bird found a great place to settle down. "As long as they have these shallow, salty types of wetlands, they can be pretty resilient," Felicity Arengo, a flamingo expert at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, told the Times. No. 492 found not only a great habitat, but also a companion: a Caribbean flamingo that was likely displaced during a tropical storm, the Times reported.

Ben Shepard, an intern with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, spotted No. 492 on May 23 while on a bird survey in Lavaca Bay. He didn't see No. 492's Caribbean companion, but experts told the Times this doesn't mean the companion is gone.

"It's possible they're separated and will show up back together again," Arengo told the Times. Experts also told the Times that No. 492 could live another 10 to 20 years, as flamingos can live well into their 40s.

Original article on Live Science.

Live Science sat down with Cooke yesterday (April 17) to explore the wild interactions and historical misunderstandings humans have had with animals dating to the time of Aristotle. And believe us when we say there are misunderstandings. So. Many. Misunderstandings. 

For instance, people had no idea for centuries where the stork and other birds went in the winter. Nowadays, we know that these birds migrate to warmer places. But before this was widely known or accepted, the 17th-century scientist and minister Charles Morton proposed another idea: Storks flew to the moon "in one great flock," he wrote, according to Cooke's book. [In Photos: The Amazing Penguins of Antarctica]

This incredible journey took the stork about 60 days, each way, giving the birds enough time to spend four months on Earth and four months on the moon, Morton incorrectly calculated. Granted, "here, he failed to account for the fact that the velocity required for his space-traveling storks to leave Earth's gravitational pull would be some 200 times his calculated top speed, a feat unachievable without the help of NASA's finest rocket boosters bound to the birds' backs," Cooke wrote.

In all, Cooke explores the odd histories of 13 animals: eel, beaver, sloth, hyena, vulture, bat, frog, stork, hippo, moose, panda, penguin and chimpanzee.

These tales include the true-life story of how a psychologist at the University of Oklahoma adopted a chimpanzee to an attempt to raise her like a human, and how Sigmund Freud tried, in vain, to discover the testicles of the eel. Then, she contrasts these stories with new research that's going on today, including researchers who study chimp communication in the primates' native habitat, rather than in a laboratory.

"I'd hope that the book helps us understand animals on their own terms," Cooke told Live Science, "and to appreciate them for what they are and not what we want them to be."

Original article on Live Science.

Want to know some wild facts about wildlife? How about these: Penguins cheat on their mates, moose get drunk, and worker ants are known to laze around. 

There are so many unusual facts out there that zoologist Lucy Cooke, an award-winning filmmaker and National Geographic explorer, wrote a book chock-full of them. And it debuts this Tuesday, April 17.

That same day, Live Science will sit down with Cooke on Facebook Live to learn more about her book "The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife" (Basic Books, 2018). And to make sure you're paying attention, we'll ask a trivia question during the interview. Then, we'll randomly select five people who answer the trivia question correctly in the Facebook comments, and they'll win a free copy of Cooke's book! [Daring Duos: Photos of Unlikely Animal Friends]

Tune in to the interview on our Facebook page at 12:30 p.m. EDT on Tuesday (April 17). It will be a great crash course on the 13 species Cooke describes in her book: eel, beaver, sloth, hyena, vulture, bat, frog, stork, hippo, moose, panda, penguin and chimpanzee.

The contest rules are below. Don't forget to check Facebook and Twitter for updates on this contest and other live-video events.

'The Truth About Animals' Giveaway

Official Rules

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to legal residents of 50 U.S & DC, 18 or older. Employees, agents, officers & directors of Purch Group, Inc. ("Sponsor"), its parent, subsidiaries, affiliates & advertising & promotion agencies (collectively with Facebook, Inc., “Released Parties”) & members of their immediate family (spouse, parent, children, siblings & their respective spouses, regardless of where they reside) & persons living in the same household, whether or not related, are not eligible. Void where prohibited. Subject to all applicable federal, state & local laws.

HOW TO ENTER: At any time between 12:30 pm ET on Tuesday, April 17, 2018 and 12:30 pm ET on Wednesday, April 18, 2018 (the “Entry Period”), visit the Live Science page on Facebook (“Event Page”), find the post about the giveaway and answer the trivia question asked during the interview of Lucy Cook, author of The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife (“Event”) via a comment to the post. If, for whatever reason, the Event is cancelled or postponed, this giveaway will not occur. Entries generated by script, macro or other automated means or by any means which subvert the entry process are void. Limit one (1) entry per person/Facebook ID.  Multiple entries will be void. Entries become the sole property of Sponsor. Entry must not be offensive or inappropriate, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any entry and remove any comment that it determines, in its sole discretion, is not in compliance with these Official Rules or is otherwise not in keeping with Sponsor’s image.

WINNER DETERMINATION: Five winners will be randomly selected from the eligible individuals who posted correct answers the trivia question, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion, during the Entry Period. If, by the end of the Entry Period, no eligible comments are provided, the prize will not be awarded. Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received.

WINNER NOTIFICATION: Potential winners will be notified via a comment on his/her winning post and via Facebook Messenger & he/she will have 24 hours from notification to respond to Sponsor. The failure to respond to such notification or the potential winner’s noncompliance with these Official Rules may result in disqualification, & at Sponsor’s sole discretion, prize may be awarded to an alternate winner.

Prize: A copy of The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife (5 prizes available). Approximate Retail Value: $28.00. Total Prize is awarded “as is” with no warranty or guarantee, either express or implied.   Winner is responsible for all federal, state & local taxes. Winner may not substitute, assign or transfer prize, but Sponsor reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to substitute prize (or portion thereof) with one of comparable or greater value. Prize cannot be redeemed for cash. All prize details are at Sponsor’s sole discretion.

GRANT OF RIGHTS: By submitting an entry, each entrant grants to Sponsor and its licensees, successors and assigns an irrevocable, perpetual, unlimited, royalty-free, fully paid-up license to reproduce, distribute, display, exhibit, exploit, perform, edit, create derivatives of, & otherwise use the entry & all elements of such entry, together with any other material, and the name, user name, city & state of residence, voice, image and/or likeness of entrant, in any & all media now known or hereafter devised, in any manner, in whole or in part, worldwide, without compensation or notification to, or permission from, entrant or any third party, for any purpose whatsoever, including without limitation, for purposes of advertising or trade. 

CONDITIONS: By participating, each entrant agrees: (a) to abide by these Official Rules & decisions of Sponsor & judges, which shall be final & binding in all respects relating to this giveaway; and (b) to release, discharge & hold harmless Released Parties from any & all injuries, liability, losses & damages of any kind to persons, including death, or property resulting, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from entrant’s participation in the Giveaway or the acceptance or use of prize.  Released Parties are not responsible for (i) lost, late, incomplete, damaged, inaccurate, stolen, delayed, misdirected, undelivered or garbled entries; or (ii) errors or difficulties of any kind, whether human, mechanical, electronic, computer, network, typographical, printing or otherwise, relating to or in connection with the giveaway, including, without limitation, errors or difficulties which may occur in connection with the administration of the giveaway, the processing of entries, the announcement of the prize or in any giveaway-related materials.  Persons who tamper with or abuse any aspect of the giveaway or the Event Page, who act in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner or who are in violation of these Official Rules, as solely determined by Sponsor, will be disqualified & all associated entries will be void. Should any portion of the giveaway be, in Sponsor’s sole opinion, compromised by virus, worms, bugs, non-authorized human intervention or other causes which, in the sole opinion of the Sponsor, corrupt or impair the administration, security, fairness or proper play, or submission of entries, Sponsor reserves the right at its sole discretion to suspend, modify or terminate the giveaway & if terminated, at its discretion, select winner as deemed fair & appropriate by Sponsor. Information submitted in connection with this giveaway will be used in accordance with Sponsor’s Privacy Policy, available at http://purch.com/privacy-policy/.  

WINNERS’ NAMES: Winners’ names will be posted on the Event Page following the end of the giveaway. 

Sponsor: Purch Group, Inc., 11 West 42^nd Street, 15^th Floor, New York, New York 10036. This giveaway is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to Sponsor & not to Facebook.

Original article on Live Science.

A big cat just got a CAT scan.

Veterinary staff scanned the cat, a 14-year-old African lion named Tomo, to look at the extent of a fungal infection in the big guy's gums, according to a statement from the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio.

"Tomo had an infection in his jaw," Dr. Randy Junge, a veterinarian and the vice president of animal health at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, said in video posted to the zoo's YouTube page on March 6. "He had a tooth removed, and the area didn't heal, so we were concerned that there might be something more involved in that area than just the bad tooth."

CAT scans, or computerized axial tomography scans, combine a series of X-ray images taken from different angles to create "slices" of the body, according to the Mayo Clinic. The scans, which are also referred to as CT scans, provide doctors with more information than a traditional X-ray does. ("This lion's name is Tomo, and he got a tomo-graphy," Junge said.) [In Photos: A Lion's Life]

Indeed, without the scan, doctors would not have been able to look at the extent of Tomo's infection, according to the statement.

But performing a CAT scan on a big cat presents challenges.

Junge noted that the CAT-scan table is made for humans, not other animals, and can hold only up to 500 lbs. (about 230 kilograms) — "many of my zoo patients are going to go over that," he said in the video.

Weighing in at 450 lbs. (204 kg), Tomo was "pushing the limit. The machine groaned and grumbled a bit, but we were able to get the image done," Junge said.

Another challenge was positioning Tomo correctly. "For a human, they would say, lay this way, put your arms and legs here, hold still, hold your breath," Junge said. "You obviously can't do [those things] with a large animal, especially [one] under anesthesia."

There was a lot of "shifting and pushing and arranging and getting [Tomo] just right, but in the end, our images came out perfectly," and the veterinary staff was able to diagnose Tomo's problem, Junge said.

The vets confirmed that Tomo's fungal infection hadn't spread beyond the affected gum and said the problem will likely get better after the lion finishes a two-month course of antifungal medications.

Originally published on Live Science.

Join Live Science as we speak with Annette Libeskind Berkovits, author of "Confessions of an Accidental Zoo Curator."

Her memoir describes the three decades Berkovits spent developing and overseeing education programs for the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York at the iconic Bronx Zoo, one of the largest wildlife conservation parks in the United States.

In the book, Berkovits outlines her "zoo life," learning the ins and outs of an enormous institution housing thousands of captive wild animals, and educating the public about the Bronx Zoo's myriad inhabitants — both at the zoo, and in collaborations with other scientific institutions, educators and researchers around the world. [Read an excerpt from the book]

As the title implies, Berkovits didn't initially expect to find herself in a career as a zoo curator. But when she began working for the Bronx Zoo in 1972, she soon realized the place's potential to perform as an ambassador for wildlife conservation, and she set out to incorporate that message into a wide range of public programs, such as overnight safaris and science camps. Zoos bring the public face-to-face with animals that they would typically never encounter, and Berkovits explains in her book how the wonder inspired by the creatures glimpsed at a zoo could spark a lasting interest in nature and biodiversity.

Original article on Live Science.

What goes on behind the scenes at a zoo? Author Annette Libeskind Berkovits, retired Senior Vice President for Education at the Bronx Zoo, has plenty of stories to tell. In "Confessions of an Accidental Zoo Curator," Berkovits describes a career at the zoo that spanned three decades, during which she worked to shape the zoo's education and outreach program to help visitors learn more about the animal inhabitants, and to understand the challenges that many of them face in the wild due to human activity. At the same time, she brought the zoo's conservation messages and education initiatives to locations around the world. Below is an excerpt of "Confessions of an Accidental Zoo Curator" (Tenth Planet Press, 2017).

Excerpt from Chapter 6: "On the Way to Stardom"

When I aced my job interview, it was assumed that I either knew how to handle animals or would be a quick study. Since it wasn’t entirely clear what my duties would be, I hadn’t even thought to inquire if animal handling was a part of the job. I wasn’t about to blow my cover.

"OK," I said. "Let’s put her in a case." Inside, my guts were twisting in primeval dread.

"What case?" Kim asked.

"You know, the carrying case," I said, trying to sound like an expert.

She looked at me. "Um, how long have you been working here? You should know that snakes go out in pillow cases."

At first I thought she was pulling my leg, but I saw her rifling through a pile of linens stacked in the corner of the stainless-steel counter.

"Shit," she said, "I don’t have any of the big ones here. I just threw them into the washing machine." She pointed at the end of the building where the washer was spinning. I glanced at my watch and knew that if I didn’t go out and wait for the cab at the gate, the driver would leave, thinking he had been duped.

"I’ve got to go," I said, panicked but trying to look calm. "I’ll be late."

She opened the cage, reached in and took out Harriet, trying to balance her heft on both arms.

"Here, I have an idea," she said, and moved uncomfortably close. "Wrap her around your waist, like this." Before I could respond, she began draping the lethargic boa around my middle. "On a cold day like today she will hardly move." Kim looked like a fashion designer installing a new-fangled belt on a model. Then she said, "Perfect, your sheepskin coat will keep her cozy. It’s better than a pillow case."

I was speechless.

"There, close those coat buckles and go." She moved on to another task.

I had no choice. Gingerly, I adjusted Harriet’s smooth cool body and made sure her muscular bulk was evenly distributed around my waist. She felt nearly as heavy as my four-year-old son. For the moment, my nervousness about being late to the TV studio overshadowed my fear. I walked out toward the side entrance just as the security guard opened the metal gate and a yellow taxi skidded to a stop on the slippery entrance path.

The cabbie rolled down the window, looked me over from head to foot and whistled. "Let’s go," he said, "Before the traffic gets any worse." I got into the back seat, inhaling an unidentifiable scent of air freshener fighting to overpower the tobacco stink. I hoped the odors wouldn’t annoy Harriet, but she remained as inert as a thick brown belt. After the shock at my circumstance wore off a little, all I could think of was, if only Donna could see me here, sitting in a taxi with a huge serpent snuggled up to my belly, a regular Eve earning her daily bread.

Nah, she’d never believe it.

Unlike most New York City cabbies, this guy was not a talker. All he did was occasionally leer at me in the rear-view mirror. Our eyes met silently, and I knew better than to engage him in small talk. We drove past several of the Bronx streets that gave the otherwise lovely borough a bad name: boarded up windows, graffiti, overflowing garbage cans, seedy-looking men loitering in front of bodegas. When we got on the Sheridan Expressway, the Manhattan skyline rose before me like a mirage. Soon I’d be making my television debut. Anything was possible in this enchanted city.

I was so absorbed that I hadn’t noticed how warm the cab had become. Little beads of perspiration began to form on my forehead. Harriet stirred, a little at first, then more. I felt her undulating movements along my waist like a strange massage. It was odd, but for a while my fear had mostly abated, but then I started wondering. When was she last fed a plump rat or freshly-killed chicken dinner? Could she be hungry? I visualized a boa skull with its needle-like rows of backward-pointed teeth that would not allow the prey to escape, its stretchy mouth ligaments that could take in an animal much larger than its head. She had me in the perfect position. Like any constrictor, all she had to do was tighten her grip until my lungs could no longer expand and take in air.

"It’s very warm in here," I announced to the driver as we drove through midtown at last, getting close to my destination. "Any chance you can turn down the heat?" I asked urgently, because Harriet was now cruising around me and I worried she’d slither away. What would I do if she got stuck under the seat, or made her way into the trunk? Worse yet, she might slide up, reach my face and plunge her teeth into my cheek. The warmth had animated her; she must have thought she was in her tropical South American home again and my waist was a heck of a tree trunk. As soon as this ridiculous notion invaded my brain, I realized that I didn’t really know if she had been collected in the wild or if she was captive bred. I knew that boas raised in captivity were more docile, but Harriet’s provenance was a mystery. I began to sweat profusely and kept adjusting her around my middle. Then I noticed the driver glancing up at the rear-view mirror with a look of intense curiosity.

Finally, he asked, "Hey, lady, whatcha got there?"

The world's oldest known sloth has died at 43 years of age.   

Officials at the Adelaide Zoo in Australia announced that they had to euthanize a Hoffmann's two-toed sloth known as Miss C on Friday (June 2). Her quality of life had "deteriorated due to age-related health issues," zoo officials said. The sloth had reached more than double her life expectancy.

"Miss C truly was a phenomenal creature and believed to be the oldest of her kind in the world," Adelaide Zoo curator Phil Ainsley said in a statement. "The treatment Miss C required was very invasive and would likely only delay the inevitable, so the hard decision was made to humanely euthanize her."

Miss C— who was born at in the Adelaide Zoo in 1974, far from her native home in the Americas — was also the last of her kind in Australia. [Daring Duos: Photos of Unlikely Animal Friends]

"At this stage, there are no sloths left in the region, so while we would love to one day house this amazing species again, it may be some time before a sloth once again calls Adelaide Zoo, or Australia home," Ainsley said.

In the wild, the Hoffmann's two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni) lives in humid tropical forests and cloud forests in Central and South America. The solitary species is nocturnal and moves at a painfully slow and deliberate pace. On any given day, one of these animals might sleep for up to 15 hours and move a total of only 125 feet (38 meters). According to National Geographic, the creature is so sedentary that algae manages to grow on its brown-colored coat. (This has the side effect of providing some nice camouflage against predators and ocelots.)

These sloths do everything in trees: not just eating leaves and fruit, but also sleeping, mating, giving birth and pooping. The animals are so habituated to an arboreal, upside-down life that their hair grows in the opposite direction (upward) from that of most mammals, according to the San Diego Zoo. And the creatures' two climbing claws, which can grow to 4 inches (10 centimeters), are so strong that a sloth might remain hanging from a branch even after death.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) lists the Hoffmann's two-toed sloth as a species of least concern, meaning the animals are not in danger of going extinct anytime soon. The wild population faces some threats, however, including habitat loss and the illegal trade, according to the IUCN.

Original article on Live Science.

A newfound crab named after "Harry Potter" wizards may not be magical, but its discovery is certainly enchanting.

The late Harry Conley, an ex-Marine turned researcher, unearthed the tiny crustacean while digging along the shores of Guam, a U.S. territory located in the western Pacific Ocean.

Twenty years passed between the time that Conley collected the crab and when researchers identified it as a new genus and species. Coincidentally, the scientists, one of them a self-proclaimed "Potterhead" seized the opportunity to name the undescribed critter Harryplax severus, after Harry Conley and J.K. Rowling's character, Harry Potter. [In Photos: A Bevy of Magical 'Fantastic Beasts']

The new crab is tiny — just 0.3 by 0.2 inches (7.9 by 5.6 millimeters), the researchers said. Conley found it while digging in the coral rubble and rocks along Guam's coast, about 6.5 feet (2 meters) below the water's surface during a low tide in 1998.

In the early 2000s, Conley gave his vast collections from Guam to Gustav Paulay, a curator of marine malacology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, who in turn gave them to Peter Ng, a biologist at the National University of Singapore, who co-authored the new study. (Malacology is a branch of zoology that studies mollusks.)

Ng and his co-author, Jose Christopher E. Mendoza, who is also a biologist at the National University of Singapore, named the newfound genus for Conley because his work has "substantially advanced the cause of marine science," they wrote in the study.

And why Harry Potter? The researchers said the fictitious wizard's magical abilities aren't too different from Conley's talent for finding rare or new species. The idea was actually Mendoza's, who said he couldn't pass up the chance to include his favorite fictional character in the discovery. It wasn't hard to persuade Ng, who knew Conley and thought the ex-Marine would have liked the connection, he said.

The species name, severus, has two meanings. The name itself is Latin for "harsh," "rough" and "rigorous," which "alludes to the rigorous and laborious process by which this crab was collected," the researchers wrote in the study.

But "it is also an allusion to a notorious and misunderstood character in the Harry Potter novels, Professor Severus Snape, for his ability to keep one of the most important secrets in the story, just like the present new species, which has eluded discovery until now, nearly 20 years after it was first collected," they wrote.

H. severus lives at deep depths, but has adapted to its environment by evolving to have small eyes, well-developed antennae and long, slender legs, the researchers said.

The new study was published online today (Jan. 23) in the journal ZooKeys.

Original article on Live Science.

Should killer whales Skype? A new study suggests that virtual links between captive orca populations might be one way to improve the lives of these marine mammals.

The keeping of orcas, or killer whales, in captivity has been a matter of public controversy, especially since the release of the documentary "Blackfish" in 2013. The film centers on the 2010 killing of a SeaWorld trainer, Dawn Brancheau, by a captive killer whale that had been captured from the wild in 1983. (That killer whale, named Tilikum, died on Jan. 6, Live Science reported.)

As a result of the public outrage following the documentary, SeaWorld announced in March 2016 that it would shut down killer-whale shows in its parks, as well as its orca breeding program. But orcas live for decades (and some have been known to live past 100), and there are dozens in captivity that will remain at SeaWorld (and other captive-breeding establishments) for the rest of their lives.

Now, two researchers at the University of Glasgow in Scotland have some suggestions for how to improve these orcas' lives.

The suggestions go way beyond offering orcas more toys and activities. One idea is to establish audio communication channels between different captive populations — and even wild populations — so they can "talk" to each other. Another is to establish feeding systems that require whales to work together to get food, as they do in the wild.

"We are at a stage where, for the most part, the physical welfare of animals in captivity is good and often a good deal better than in the wild," said animal welfare expert Graham Law, one of the authors of a paper listing the suggestions in the journal International Zoo Yearbook. "However, the psychological welfare is an area that needs more work." [Orca Gallery: See Gorgeous Photos of Killer Whales]

Orca psychology

Whales' psychological health is at the center of the controversy over Brancheau's death. A male orca named Tilikum dragged Brancheau into the water after a show. As Outside magazine reported, Tilikum's early years were traumatic. He was captured and taken from his pod at age 2. (In the wild, male whales typically stay with their mothers for the rest of their lives, and a son's survival depends on his mother well into adulthood.) The young whale then was kept in a barren concrete pool in Iceland for a year before being transferred to a now-defunct marine park in British Columbia. There, Tilikum was bullied by two dominant females. In 1991, the three understimulated whales killed a part-time trainer who slipped into their pool, Outside reported.

Tilikum was then sold to SeaWorld, where, Outside reported, he had better care but was still harried by dominant females. In 1999, Tilikum was involved in the death of a man who snuck in after hours to swim in the orca pool. (It isn't known whether Tilikum killed the man directly, though he did mutilate the man's body.)  

"Tilikum is basically psychotic," Ken Balcomb, executive director of the Center for Whale Research, told Outside magazine. "He has been maintained in a situation where I think he is psychologically unrecoverable in terms of being a wild whale."

Though there are many arguments over whether killer whales should be kept in captivity, the fact is that they are already there, Law told Live Science. As of 2016, there were 56 captive orcas around the world, according to the journal International Zoo News. At some point, Law said, there may be hard decisions to make about whether captivity might save the species. [Marine Marvels: Spectacular Photos of Sea Creatures]

"The resident population of killer whales around Scotland are not doing very well, and soon they may be extinct" due to high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in their environment, Law said. "We do not know what species we may need to protect in captivity in the future," he added. "We should, however, where possible, be aware of the best methods to do so."  

A better life

Law and his colleague Andrew Kitchener, principal curator of vertebrates at the National Museums Scotland, focused on social, feeding, fitness and environmental recommendations for the care of killer whales. These recommendations have not been tested, they cautioned, but all are based on mimicking the whales' activities and environment in the wild.

Socially, the researchers suggested, killer whales might benefit from communication with far-flung brethren. Orcas are vocally complex and can even learn new "dialects." Satellite uplinks between marine parks could connect disparate groups, Law and Kitchener wrote. Strange as it might sound, zoos have used sounds to promote natural behavior before, Law said. In 1989, researchers reported in International Zoo Yearbook that they'd used recorded gibbon calls to prompt a pair of gibbons in a London zoo to make their own territorial cries and to mate. The sound of what seemed to be nearby gibbons appeared to urge the primates to protect their territory and reproduce.

Animals other than orcas also might benefit from more enriched soundscapes, Law said. For example, lions communicate across prides with loud roars, and leopard calls seem to be full of information about the caller's identity, he said.

"We should think more about how unnatural it is to keep zoo animals in acoustic isolation," Law said.

The researchers also recommended different methods of feeding that would require orcas to take an active role in finding food. Motion-sensor feeders could be programmed to release treats after whales perform a task. Methods that require whales to work together could mimic the requirements of hunting as a pod in the wild. Orcas are known to be clever hunters: They make waves to wash seals off ice, they eavesdrop on prey and they even set traps.

Training could engage those sharp killer-whale brains, and build stamina. Law and Kitchener suggested training whales to hold their breath for long periods, thus simulating the deep dives the whales do in the wild. They also suggested more naturalistic features in tanks, like kelp (real or artificial), artificial boulders and wave-making machines. Acoustic materials could be varied in tanks to give whales something to echolocate off of, the researchers wrote. Tapes of ocean sounds could be played to stimulate whales' senses.

All of these ideas, Law said, need to be tested scientifically. The public debate over killer whales in captivity is highly polarized, he said, but trainers at SeaWorld and other marine parks are very enthusiastic about improving the welfare of their animals.

"As far as I am aware, husbandry changes were already in the pipeline by a number of organizations that keep orca to create better conditions for them," Law said. "I hope that the public will support any positive attempts to make things more interesting and challenging for animals in captivity."

Original article on Live Science.

Ripe old age

Colo, the world's oldest gorilla, celebrates her 60th birthday on December 22, 2016, at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Columbus, Ohio.

Hello, world!

December 22, 1956: Colo, a western lowlands gorilla, was born at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, becoming the first gorilla in the world born in captivity. She was tiny — weighing only 3.75 pounds (1.7 kilograms) and measuring 15 inches (38 centimeters) long.

A precious life

Colo was born earlier than expected, and Columbus Zoo staff found her shortly after birth, abandoned by her mother on the floor of their enclosure, and still in her amniotic sac. She was raised by human caregivers, who attended her around the clock.

A meager beginning

Colo's name was derived from a combination of the words "Columbus" and "Ohio." She was briefly called Cuddles, until the zoo hosted a contest to officially name her.

Sweet baby

Gorillas are gentle and intelligent animals who live in small family groups with one adult male. Young gorillas are dependent on their mothers for the first three years of their lives.

Vulnerable creature

Colo's parents were Millie and Mac, two gorillas captured in French Cameroon, Africa. They became residents at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium during a brutal snowstorm in 1951.

New family

Prior to Colo's birth, zoo gorillas were typically captured in the wild as babies. Often, their family members were killed in the process.

Trial by fire

Colo's birth proved that gorillas were able reproduce in captivity. Much was learned about gorilla pregnancies — notably that the gorilla gestation period is about 250 days.

Not alone

Colo was rejected by her mother at birth, but 24-hour care from staff at the zoo ensured that she was healthy and socialized.

Hangin' out

The Columbus Zoo maintains several gorilla social groupings. While Colo is content to observe other gorillas from a distance, she prefers to live apart from them, according to her caregivers.

Baby pics

Colo was raised in a nursery and reared by zookeepers, and introduced into the zoo's primate enclosure as she neared maturity. Since 1955, the gorilla habitat at the Columbus Zoo has changed to become more like the gorillas' natural habitat in the wild.

Pretty primate

When Colo was two years old she was introduced to a 19-month-old gorilla from Africa named Bongo, who would become her mate. They had three offspring, but Colo did not raise them herself.

Record-setting lifespan

In 2012, Colo broke the existing record and became the longest living gorilla at 56 years old.

Veggies, baby

Gorillas are vegetarians. They live quietly in the forests, and their only natural enemies are the poachers who hunt them.

Extended lives

Gorillas in the wild have an average lifespan of 30 to 40 years, but often live much shorter lives due to poaching and the Ebola virus. These unique animals are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Difference-maker

After Colo's birth, the Columbus Zoo continued to build its reputation as a leader in gorilla breeding, care, habitat and conservation.

History in the making

Throughout her lifetime, Colo has played an important role in the Columbus Zoo's history. She birthed the first second-generation gorilla born in captivity, Emmy, on February 1, 1968.

Family tree

Colo is a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother. Her descendants include three children, 16 grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren — thus far. For a decade, her grandsons held the record for being the only gorilla twins born in the western hemisphere. Colo's great-granddaughter Timu was the first surviving infant gorilla conceived by artificial insemination, and Timu delivered her first baby in 2003.

A legacy

In the past 60 years, 32 gorillas in total have been born at the Columbus Zoo. Many captive-born gorillas are now raised by their mothers.

Conservation a necessity

Currently 765 gorillas live in zoos around the world. Fewer than 175,000 individuals can be found in the wild.

Nice decorations!

Colo celebrates her 58th birthday at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium on Dec. 22, 2014.

Yum

Colo enjoys her birthday cake on her 58th birthday.

Life-long resident

Colo has lived at the Columbus Zoo longer than any other animal in the zoo's collection.

Tasty treats

Colo celebrates her 59th birthday at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium on Dec. 22, 2015, amid colorful decorations and various treats.

The first gorilla born in human care turned 60 today (Dec. 22) at her home in the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio.

Colo, whose name is a combination of "Columbus" and "Ohio," is a western lowland gorilla, and is the oldest gorilla in the world. Born in 1956, she first broke this record in 2012 when she turned 56, already decades beyond a gorilla's typical life expectancy, which is about 30 to 40 years old.

Now entering her seventh decade, Colo's birth and subsequent reproductive success represent years of progress in the care and breeding of captive gorillas, the Columbus Zoo said in a statement. But she also draws attention to the plight of gorillas in the wild, which are increasingly under threat from poachers and from habitat destruction. [Colo, World's Oldest Gorilla, Turns 60 (Photos)]

When Colo was born at the Columbus Zoo, scientists knew little about gorilla pregnancy, and she arrived several weeks sooner than expected, according to a 2009 video about her life by Columbus Zoo Media. In the video, a narrator describes a zookeeper discovering a newborn Colo, still in her amniotic sac, on the gorilla enclosure floor in the early morning hours of Dec. 22, 1956, abandoned by her mother.

'Round-the-clock attention

Zoo staff provided 24-hour care for the infant, and she grew and thrived under their attention. In 1958, she was introduced to a male gorilla, Bongo, who became her companion and mate for the next 25 years, and with whom she produced three young gorillas, two females and a male. Over the years, Colo's offspring brought her 16 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren. "JJ," the most recent gorilla arrival at the zoo, was born Sept. 28 and is Colo's great-grandson.  

Colo currently lives in close proximity to other gorillas, but her keepers have made special arrangements to accommodate her dietary and social needs as she ages. She has her own enclosure, as she appeared to be more comfortable spending her days apart from the larger groups, said Audra Meinelt, the assistant curator of the Congo Expedition at the Columbus Zoo.

In recent years, Colo has also been particularly challenged by arthritis, just as aging humans can be, Meinelt told Live Science. Dietary supplements help to counteract stiffness, while zoo staff have modified structures in Colo's living space to make it easier for her to get around; they also created enrichment devices to encourage Colo to use her digits.

"Her arthritis is very specific to her hands and feet, so we came up with ways to get her to use her fingers more often," Meinelt said. "We also changed the way that we present her diet, so that also causes her to exercise her fingers."

Picky eater

Colo's diet has changed as she's gotten older, partly because she's become choosier about what she eats, Dana Hatcher, manager of animal nutrition at the Columbus Zoo, told Live Science.

"She doesn't like zucchini, or green beans, or grapes, or honeydew, or cantaloupe, or oranges or strawberries," Hatcher said. But Colo still gets plenty of variety in her diet, along with probiotics, brewer's yeast for additional B vitamins and lots of iceberg lettuce, which helps keep her hydrated.

As Colo has grown and changed over decades, so too has the Columbus Zoo. The center established a gorilla surrogacy program to ensure that newborn gorillas are raised and socialized by other females if their own mothers are unable to care for them. As a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan, developed in 1981, the zoo collaborates with other zoos to maintain healthy populations of captive animals and to ensure genetic diversity.

But preserving gorillas in the wild is also part of the Columbus Zoo's mission. Colo's longevity has kept her in the public eye for a long time; for many visitors, she is one of a handful of gorillas that they will ever see firsthand. As such, she provides an important connection to wild populations that are in dire need of conservation, Meinelt said.  

"She's an excellent ambassador for her species," Meinelt told Live Science. "People know who she is. They look forward to celebrating her birthday each year, and that gives us the chance to educate them about what gorillas are facing in the wild and how critical their situation really is."

Original article on Live Science.

The Bronx Zoo has been taken over by a horde of adorable animals of an entirely new species — call it Elephas origami.

The zoo, run by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), has officially amassed the largest display collection of origami elephants in the world, earning it a spot in the Guinness World Records. The official tally of 78,564 more than doubles the last record holder, the Zoological Society of London/Whipsnade Zoo in Great Britain, which displayed a paltry 33,764 origami elephants in 2014.

Expert folders from 40 countries around the world — including Iran, Kazakhstan and Egypt — sent in 204,481 specimens. One set of elephants was even sent by a 109-year-old woman. [See Images of the Adorable Folded Elephants]

"WCS's Bronx Zoo received these gems of folded paper from all over the world and assembled them into this gorgeous display as a simple gesture that sends a powerful message to the world that we are standing together to save these majestic animals," John Calvelli, WCS' executive vice president for public affairs, said in a statement.

Because the display is so enormous, not all of it is open to the public. However, many of the paper pachyderms will be part of a holiday exhibit open to the public through December.

The project was part of the 96 Elephants campaign, an initiative run by WCS and directed by Calvelli to combat poaching and the illegal ivory trade. The campaign takes its name from the number of elephants killed every day by poachers.

The record-breaking number of paper elephants is roughly double the number of elephants killed by poachers each year, Calvelli said.

Original article on Live Science.

Origami elephants

The Bronx Zoo has officially amassed the largest collection of origami elephants in the world -- 78,564 to be precise. The origami elephants were sent in by people from around the world to raise awareness about the issue of elephant poaching.

A sea of elephants

A red origami elephant stands out from a pack of grey ones. The origami elephants were folded as part of the 96 elephants campaign to raise awareness about poaching.

World Record

On Nov. 17, 2016, officials from the Guinness World Records organization came to tally up all the origami elephants in the display. The Bronx Zoo officially earned the title for the world's largest display of origami elephants.

Tiny but huge

The display actually only included about a third of the total number of elephants sent in. Here, one of the tiny paper elephants sent to the zoo.

All different sizes

The display of origami elephants was folded using an array of techniques and colors. The campaign that launched the effort, called 96 elephants, was meant to raise awareness about poaching. Every day, 96 elephants are killed around the world for their ivory tusks.

Counting the total

Here, workers from the Guinness World Records organization use a clicker to count the number of paperelephants.

Official attempt

Workers mingle at the official attempt to garner the title for the World's Largest Origami Elephant Display.

Rows and rows

The number of elephants on displays is so huge that all those paper elephants would not fit into a public display. However, people can see some of these tiny folded pachyderms through December at the Bronx Zoo holiday exhibit.

More elephants

Workers from Guinness World Records had a long day ahead of them to count all of the paper elephants on display at the Bronx Zoo.

Raising awareness

A person speaks at the official attempt to earn the title of Largest Display of Origami Elephants at the Bronx Zoo.

Official world record holders

It's official! The Bronx Zoo has the largest display of origami elephants in the world. The number of elephants on display -- more than 78,000 -- is roughly the same as the number of elephants killed by poachers as part of th ivory trade every two years.

Massive numbers

People from 40 different countries, including Kazakhstan, Egypt and Iran sent in origami elephants. One of the folders was a 109-year-old woman.

The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium has released the first images of its male baby gorilla born on Sept. 28 at 1:18 a.m. EDT — and the little one has eyes that could melt most hearts.

Named JJ, the pint-size primate — a western lowland gorilla — is the 32nd gorilla born at the Columbus Zoo, which also facilitated the birth of the first gorilla born in captivity, nearly 60 years ago. That gorilla, Colo, is still living at the zoo. She is the oldest gorilla on record — and is also JJ's great-grandmother.

JJ, along with his mother Tabibu, will remain out of the public eye for several months, to allow the mother and newborn time to bond, according to a statement from zoo officials. [Baby Gorillas Show Off Cute Hairstyles]

"She's a first-time mother and has no previous experience with infants," Audra Meinelt, assistant curator of the Congo Expedition at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, told Live Science. "So we want her to focus on that baby."

Zoo caretakers eventually identified the newborn as male, though it was days after the birth before they could be sure. Gorilla young are typically carried by their mothers in a stomach-to-stomach position, which can make it difficult for observers to determine a new baby's sex, Meinelt explained.

"We had suspicions, but it took days to confirm that we could see male parts," Meinelt said. "It depends on what kind of look the mom lets you have, so it's hard to tell until you're lucky enough to get that glimpse."

Captive breeding

Western lowland gorillas are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). For zoos that maintain gorilla populations, breeding them successfully in captivity is a vital part of preserving this fragile species.

To that end, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums maintains a Species Survival Plan that compiles genetic information about animals in captivity, to help zoos determine which pairings will likely produce the healthiest offspring.

JJ is the first infant sired by his father, Macombo II. But Mac, as he is called, had previously helped care for unrelated infants in his group — an uncommon behavior in adult male gorillas, zoo officials said in the statement. Mac was born at the Columbus Zoo in 1983; Tabibu was born in Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo in 1992 and came to live at the Columbus Zoo in 2012.

Once prospective mates have been introduced within a social group, zoo caretakers test female gorillas monthly for signs of pregnancy. "We use human pregnancy tests," Meinelt told Live Science, which they administer using urine collected from enclosure floors or captured directly from the gorillas.

Gorilla gestation is comparable to a human female's, but there can be a wide range of possible due dates — in Tabibu's case, that window was about six weeks, during which Tabibu could have gone into labor at any time, Meinelt said. Shortly before that period, caretakers moved Tabibu's entire group to a new area, where they would rotate between two spaces, only one of which was open to public view.

For now, JJ will be visible to the public only through photos, and zoo officials hope that news of his birth will kindle visitors' interest — not just in the newborn himself, but in his zoo "family" and in gorilla conservation efforts worldwide.

"Every birth of a critically endangered species is especially exciting, but to welcome a critically endangered gorilla into our family is one of the most extraordinary announcements we can make," Tom Stalf, president and CEO of the Columbus Zoo, said in the statement.

Original article on Live Science.

A python likely experienced a weird case of déjà vu last week after it became trapped in a circle of its own molted skin, surprising scientists. The serpent slithered around and around for about 3 hours until it eventually broke free, according to a reptile center in Australia.

The bizarre incident happened at the Alice Springs Reptile Centre on June 14. Visitors noticed that the Stimson's python had molted, and was essentially trapped in its own skin, according to a Facebook post by the center.  

"It actually looks like a steering wheel," the center said in a Facebook post. "[I] have been in the reptile business a long time and have never seen anything quite like it." [7 Shocking Snake Stories]

Stimson's pythons molt all the time, about once a month on average, but it's rare for one to get stuck in its sloughed-off skin, said David Penning, a doctoral fellow of biology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, who is not affiliated with the reptile center.

"It's just pure, random chance that it would crawl inside its own face, if you think about it," Penning told Live Science. "I've worked with thousands of snakes before, and I've seen a snake accidentally try to eat its own tail, but I've never seen a snake that's trapped inside its own skin casing before."

While humans shed skin in tiny flakes as they scrub and exfoliate, snakes get rid of their skin "in one giant shed," Penning said. 

"A young snake that's growing will shed more often than an older snake, because they're literally running out of space inside their skin," he said. Snakes also usually shed if they get a wound or a scratch, and need a new piece of injury-free skin, he said.

Before a snake molts, the old skin is wet and pliable, and "a little bit more stretchy than it normally is," Penning said. "But after a couple of minutes to an hour, it becomes like frail tissue paper because it dries up and it's really thin."

Luckily for the snake in Australia, it eventually escaped the seemingly endless loop by breaking through a hole in the side of the fragile skin, the center said. Although the snake left a hole, the molted skin remained in an intact circle, and an employee at the center took a photo to show Facebook followers, writing, "This one shows the Stimmie most of the way out. The shed skin has remained intact with just an exit hole in the side."

Later, the snake curled up on a branch in its enclosure. "The Stimmie looking stunning if not a bit stunned after its marathon shedding episode," the center said.

It's great the snake finally tasted "sweet, sweet freedom," Penning said. The Stimson's python is a small and slender Australian python that usually grows to about 3.2 feet (1 meter) in length by adulthood, "which is actually pretty small compared to many other Australian pythons," Penning said.

Stimson's pythons use the heat-sensing pits on their lip scales to hunt small mammals, reptiles and amphibians. The serpents are usually found in rocky, shrub and desert areas of Australia, Penning added.

To those curious about the fate of other snakes that get into the same predicament as this one, death is unlikely, as the snakes would probably somehow find a way out rather than remain perpetually stuck in its old skin, Penning said.

"They would just get out of it eventually," he said. "The skin isn't that strong."

Original article on Live Science.

The discovery of a short-snouted, oceangoing reptile with a whip-like tail suggests that some marine reptiles evolved quickly (geologically speaking) after a mass extinction 250 million years ago, a new study finds.

The finding turns an old theory on its head, showing that early marine reptiles didn't evolve slowly after the end-Permian extinction. The extinction wiped out about 96 percent of all marine species, largely due to climate change, volcanic eruptions and rising sea levels, the researchers said.

The newfound specimen from China is an early ichthyosaur, a marine reptile that looks a bit like a dolphin. Its discovery suggests that early ichthyosaurs evolved rapidly within the first million years of their evolution, during the early Triassic, the researchers wrote in the study. This is in contrast to the millions of years that researchers originally thought it took for these sea creatures to evolve. [In Images: Graveyard of Ichthyosaur Fossils Found in Chile]

However, this particular, roughly 5.2-foot-long (1.6 meters) ichthyosaur is something of a black sheep, lacking the typical long snout and powerful tail fins of its kin, the researchers said.

In addition, most ichthyosaurs had conical teeth that helped them hunt in the ocean, but the newfound ichthyosaur was toothless, and may have used its short snout to create pressure to suck up food like a syringe, the researchers said.

In fact, the weird anatomy inspired the researchers to name the beast Sclerocormus parviceps. The genus name combines the Greek words "skleros" and "kormos" to call attention to its "stiff trunk." The species name comes from the Latin words "parvus" and "caput," which translate into "small skull."

"Sclerocormus tells us that ichthyosauriforms evolved and diversified rapidly at the end of the lower Triassic period," Olivier Rieppel, The Field Museum's Rowe Family Curator of Evolutionary Biology, said in a statement. "We don't have many marine reptile fossils from this period, so this specimen is important because it suggests that there's diversity that hasn't been uncovered yet."

S. parviceps' discovery also shows that evolution isn't always predictable, he said.

"Darwin's model of evolution consists of small, gradual changes over a long period of time, and that's not quite what we're seeing here," Rieppel said. "These ichthyosauriforms seem to have evolved very quickly, in short bursts of lots of change, in leaps and bounds."

Findings like that of S. parviceps show that life can respond to massive environmental pressures after mass extinctions decimate the planet. These discoveries may even inform scientists about the sixth mass extinction that some experts say we're entering now. [Image Gallery: Photos Reveal Prehistoric Sea Monster]

"We're in a mass extinction right now, not one caused by volcanoes or meteorites, but by humans," Rieppel said. "So while the extinction 250 million years ago won't tell us how to solve what's going on today, it does bear on the evolutionary theory at work. How do we understand the recovery and rebuilding of a food chain, of an ecosystem? How does that get fixed, and what comes first?"

The study was published online today (May 23) in the journal Scientific Reports.

Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter @LauraGeggel. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

This story was updated June 1 at 6:10 p.m. EDT.

The National Zoo's youngest (and chubbiest) panda cub is learning how to touch a tennis ball with his little black nose, zookeepers say.

But it's not a ploy to sharpen his tennis game. Rather, zookeepers are training panda cub Bei Bei (BAY-BAY) to look at a tennis ball so that they can later use the ball as a signal to have the bear stand still for medical inspections, such as blood pressure checks and ultrasounds, said Laurie Thompson, a giant-panda biologist at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

"He's still kind of young and doesn't have a large attention span," Thompson told Live Science, so they only train him in 5- to 10-minute increments. By rewarding him with his favorite snack (cooked sweet potatoes), zookeepers hope to eventually train Bei Bei to sit, lie down and show his paws, she said. [What a Precious Bei Bei! Panda Cub Grows Up (Photos)]

The almost 9-month-old cub was born at the National Zoo on Aug. 22, 2015. In fact, Bei Bei (which means "precious treasure" in Mandarin) had a fraternal twin brother. But the brother, who was never named, lived only a few days. The cub died on Aug. 26, after he aspirated fluid and developed pneumonia, Thompson said.

Giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) are classified as endangered, with only 1,000 to 2,000 mature individuals left in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Zookeepers did their best to keep Bei Bei healthy after his brother died. Their efforts, combined with those of panda mother Mei Xiang (may-SHONG) paid off.

Now, at 46.5 lbs. (22 kilograms), Bei Bei is the roundest panda cub the zoo has ever seen. His big sister Bao Bao (born in 2013) and older brother Tai Shan (born in 2005) weren't quite as chubby in their youth, Thompson said.

Between training and exploring the panda enclosure at the zoo, Bei Bei has been busy. He made his public debut and tried his first bamboo in January. He even successfully climbed a tree during his second outing in the zoo yard, although his mom helped him a bit. A zookeeper captured the adventure on video.

In the wild, panda cubs often climb trees as a way to avoid predators, Thompson said. Bei Bei often sleeps in trees now, and he's taken a few tumbles, but from not terribly high places, she said.

The cub also continues to play with Mei Xiang. "It's pretty rough and tumble," Thompson said. "We've had people be concerned that she's being too rough with him."

But Bei Bei is big and sturdy for his age, and he would let Mei Xiang know if he couldn't handle it, she said.

When he's not practicing touching his nose to tennis balls, climbing or sleeping, the furry cub can be spotted eating bamboo or any of a number of treats, including apples, soy-based biscuits and cooked sweet potatoes, Thompson said. [Baby Panda Photos: See a Cub Growing Up]

"He's a sweetheart," she said. "We all really like him. He's got a good personality."

Just like his brother Tai Shan, who now lives in China, Bei Bei (and Bao Bao, for that matter) will be transferred to the panda motherland when he turns 4 years old.

Until then, visitors can see him at the National Zoo, Thompson said.

In addition to Bei Bei, Bao Bao and Mei Xiang, visitors can see male panda Tian Tian. There are also pandas at the San Diego Zoo, Memphis Zoo and Zoo Atlanta, all of which are on loan from China. 

Editor's Note: Live Science has updated the photo to show Bei Bei. The previous photo showed Bao Bao, his older sister, eating a frozen cake.

Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter @LauraGeggel. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.