Sea Slugs
National Geographic has some stunning photos of nudibranches (sea slugs).
National Geographic has some stunning photos of nudibranches (sea slugs).
Who needs a fishing rod when you've got Brutus the fishing dog.

Image via
These bears must have been waiting for a family to finish building this playground. It was completed on a Saturday and by the next morning they were already playing on it. [via]
He entertains too! Only in Japan.
Cute video currently doing the rounds on the Internets.

Image via Environmental Graffiti
A tour operator in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, along with four lucky tourists, have made the first recording of a a group of Orca whales hunting a dolphin.
Ranier Schimpf was leading a group of divers when they noticed that one dolphin had been separated from a pod by five of the killer whales then repeatedly rammed. The dolphin was sent flying through the air by the force of impact from whales that were several times its size. With the smaller creature finally left laying unconscious on the surface, the whales pulled it below.
The two 7m male, two 5m female, and a 3m calf whales were clearly working as a team against the dolphin, and it appeared it was also a hunting lesson for the calf.
[via]
A small photoset showing two small children saving a puppy from an an aqueduct in Thailand. They managed to get the dog out.
A fearless gnu (or whatever it is) tries to take on 4 rhinos. [via]
Awww! How cute. First they all ran around for a bit, then they all rolled in the grass and then the cheetah cubs realised that their mum didn't catch the little impala for their entertainment.
The photo series, taken in the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya, shows a cheetah cubs learning how to catch and kill pray. It took several minutes but the cubs eventually figured out how to kill the fawn.

A hawk found dead along a California highway with the claw of a songbird protruding from its chest has raised questions over weather the songbird tried to escape after being eaten.
The bird was found by Julia Di Sieno of the Animal Rescue Team in California
A pouch in the hawk's chest area called the crop had ripped open and the songbird, which had been a meal for the hawk, was spilling out.
"We removed a good portion of this bird [the songbird], which was partially digested," Di Sieno said by telephone yesterday. The hawk had apparently just finished downing what might have been a sparrow, she said. "He [the dead hawk] even still had down feathers and meat on his beak."
Di Sieno said she is not sure how the hawk died or what caused its crop to burst open.
Larger image of the bird. Link [via]

Mondex, a five-year-old chihuahua, dressed as a scuba diver, poses during a dog show at a mall in the Filipino capital Manila.
For his troubles, Mondex won first prize in the fashion category. [via]
Meet the Honey Badger, perhaps the most fearless animal in the world. This animal will attack almost anything. It will even steal prey from a snake's mouth and then return to eat the snake, even if it means getting knocked out for a few hours due to the snake's venom.
A collection of pictures showing the results of ice rain in Southern China.
This is the view from a camera attached to an elephant. Cameras were attached to four different elephants during the filming of a documentary.
One carried a "trunk-cam" - a device resembling a huge log concealing a camera which could be held in its trunk and dangled close to the ground.
Another had a "tusk-cam" hooked over its tusk. The elephants moved so steadily that the images are pin-sharp. Other log-cams were left on the forest floor.
The Daily Mail has more photos.
The toad in the video is a Surinam toad. [via]
A weeks-old Galapagos Giant Tortoise crawls in front of its 70-year-old mother "Nigrita" inside an enclosure at Zurich zoo. [via]
How much fun does this look?
This cute video of a dog playing with a ball-throwing machine has been doing the rounds on the net lately. Dogs have got such simple lives!
Remember little Knut, the polar bear that was destined to be killed in by a German zoo after its mother abandoned it?

Well, he's not so cute anymore.

The Sun has a slideshow of images of the now 1-year-old polar bear. [via]
This is the world's first "Hexapus", according to marine experts in Britain.
Discovered off the coast of North Wales, its two missing limbs are the result of a birth defect rather than an accident.
The hexapus, which has two legs less than a normal octopus, has been christened Henry by staff at Blackpool Sea Life Centre.
"We've scoured the internet and talked to lots of other aquariums and no-one has ever heard of another case of a six-legged octopus," said displays supervisor Carey Duckhouse.
[Source]
More cute pics here.
A paternal dog has adopted an abandoned baby goat as his surrogate child.
Billy the boxer has become the constant companion of the 12-day old kid called Lilly. He sleeps with the goat, licks her clean, and protects her from any dangers at Pennywell Farm wildlife centre at Buckfastleigh, near Totnes, Devon.
The kid was abandoned by her mother when she was only a few hours old and adopted by paternal Billy when his owner Elizabeth Tozer began hand rearing the goat.
The unusual bond has developed over the last month and the pair are now inseparable.
The Daily Mail has more photos.
An elephant that lost her front right leg when she stepped on a landmine has been given a new lease of life after being fitted with an artificial limb. The new canvas leg was created for Mocha, a female elephant being cared for by Thai vets. Link
The geoduck or gooyduck is the largest species of clams on the face of the earth. The clam grows to around 15 to 20cm but it's long siphon can reach 1 metre in length. It weighs between 0.5 and 1.5 kilograms but can grow much larger.
The organism, which can live well over 100 years is a delicacy in China and Japan where they are often eaten raw.
There are more photos here and anyway that comments on it looking like a you-know-what is just dirty!
A mild British winter has meant that many tortoise owners have resorted to storing them in refrigerators including Shirley Neely who has been using two fridges to store 75 of the creatures at her sanctuary. The fridges help regulate the temperature and ensure that the tortoises won't awake too early.
A great idea; you just have to be careful what you pick up when you raid the fridge after a night on the town. Link
A cute collection of photos of a budgie and a kitten.
Looks cosy.
More than a mile below the icy surface of Antarctic waters scientists have discovered an amazing world of giant sea creatures, including spiders as large as dinner plates and jellyfish with tentacles that stretch more than half the length of a London bus.
They live in a dark and mysterious wilderness of thick sea grasses and coral gardens that are teeming with creatures never seen before – huge worms, giant prawns and massive, creepy crabs.
Many of the marine animals hauled to the surface and landed on the decks of the research ship Aurora Australis have never been seen before and will now be sent to universities and museums around the world so their relationship to other known creatures can be assessed.
More photos here.
Villagers in India try to capture a pregnant tigress after it escaped from a reserve. The tranquiliser didn't work as planned and gave a few of them a bit of a fright.
An illustration depicts the ancient frog species Beelzebufo, or "devil frog," staring down the largest frog species living in Madagascar today. A pencil is included for scale.
Scientists recently identified Beelzebufo from a 70-million-year-old fossil found in Madagascar, and experts think it may have been the largest frog that ever lived. Link [via]
This amazing picture (along with these other two) show thousands of starlings flocking to the famous village of Gretna Green. The event is a seasonal phenomenon and birdwatchers come from miles around to catch a glimpse of the amazing skies. Link

A rare white stag, thought to be one of only a handful in Britain, has been filmed at a secret location in the Highlands.
The "ghost-like" red deer was spotted on the west coast of Scotland, but its location is being kept secret to prevent it becoming a target for poachers.
View video here.

Horsesurfing is a British-invented 'sport' that combines the technical skill of surfing with the raw power of horse riding.
A towing rope is attached to a special saddle so the surfer can be pulled through the water as the horse and its rider gallop alongside.
As speed picks up the boarder hits waves and is thrown into the air - where they can pull flips and tricks before landing back down and racing on. Link & official website.
A tiny, toothless pterodactyl with bat-like wings, bird-like claws and a sharp, pointy beak has just been identified from a remarkably well-preserved Chinese fossil.
According to the research team that discovered the sparrow-sized flying reptile, named Nemicolopterus crypticus, the pterosaur could be a record-breaker.
It's the smallest arboreal pterosaur, the smallest toothless pterosaur and the smallest Cretaceous pterosaur in the world.
The specimen, which only lacks part of its wings, was found in a slab of sedimentary rock in northeastern China. The rock and fossil dating reveal that the pterodactyl would have been flying around prehistoric Chinese forests 125 to 120 million years ago. Link
This 'geep' is the result of a sheep mating with a goat. It resembles a lamb in shape and stature, but has the colouring and agile back legs of a goat. Her mother seems unfazed by her unusual offspring and has raised her happily so far. More photos. [via]
A series of photos showing the development of a horse from embryo to being born. [via]
This cormorant was photographed by Stewart Canham eating a 1ft long pike whole. According to the RSPB, cormorants can eat creatures up to two-and-a-half feet long and have been recorded eating 86 different species of fish. ONe has even been found with an 11-and-a-half-inch kitten in its stomach! More photos here.
Simple stunning! More photos from the photographer. [via]
The Daily Mail has photos from an animal park at Xiamen in Fujian, south-east China that show lions and tigers riding on the backs of horses. Not known for animal welfare, the Chinese also have other animal parks where animals are subject to cruelty whilst spectators applaud.
At the Xiogsen Bear and Tiger Mountain village in Guilin, live animals are fed to tigers as a show for tourists. Bears pulling cars in a race with a strong man caused anger after the bizarre stunt was shown in Jinan last year.
In a display in Changchun, a tiger is put in a cage with an ox while muzzled so it tries to attack its prey but cannot kill it, producing an agonising and long-drawn-out battle. Link
Former battery hens, who plucked out their feathers in frustration while living in cramped conditions, are now strutting around outside in knitted woolly jumpers.
The sleeveless sweaters have been knitted by Brigitte Hawley who rescued four chickens from battery farming.
Hens cooped up without room to move often pluck out their feathers in frustration - but when they were allowed to wander freely outside the chickens suffered from cold.
Brigitte, of Benenden, Kent, came up with the idea to knit them winter body-warmers after she saw a competition run by online knitwear company Laughing Hens. Link
This brought a smile to my face. [via]
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