The Times reports on a University of Sheffield article describing research that they have done on using the poop of endangered animals to kill certain bacterial species including superbugs which are resistant to antibiotics and which cause diabetic foot ulcers. Apparently, diabetics can suffer from untreatable foot ulcers. This is not uncommon as The Times …
Endangered species’ poop could help fight diabetic foot ulcers Read More »
The man who cloned a sheep is Prof Sir Ian Wilmut and he is in The Times obituaries today as she died on September 10, 2023 aged 79 after a long illness. I’m therefore able to say a few words about this embryologist’s famous work in which he created Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal …
The man who cloned a sheep said it would be criminally irresponsible to clone a human Read More »
The most common reason by far is to protect their offspring in a nest nearby about which the dog or anyone else is blissfully unaware. The attacks bemuse the dog or cat. The picture below is a screenshot from a video which I can’t upload to this site so a screenshot will have to do. …
The Ukrainian armed forces public relations department – Defense of Ukraine on Twitter – should be using this. Maybe they are. This sort of video is normally published on the Defense of Ukraine Twitter feed but not this time as far as I can tell. It shows a fawn suckling on the ear lobe of …
Fawn suckles on the ear lobe of a Ukrainian soldier on the front line Read More »
I love this cute video. The instinctive drive to build a dam is strong inside the animal. The beaver grabs anything suitable and builds a dam across the opening to an internal door. They see that area as a suitable place to build it. It looks strange as there is no water. I wonder if …
Domestic beaver’s incredible instinct to build a dam inside a human home Read More »
In the UK, the great crested newt is protected under European law. The species is quite widespread across the UK. It is illegal to harm them or damage their habitat. This presents a problem to building developers in planning applications. They have to apply for a licence before they can catch the animals or handle …
The Twitter tweet states: “A pelican befriended a stray dog who was often spotted hanging out all alone along the boat docks. The man who photographed this has adopted him but brings him back every day to see his friend, Petey the Pelican.” A beautiful story. There is no bias or discrimination of species, size, …
A lot of people, perhaps most people, treat pigeons as pest and vermin. They don’t like the fact that they defecate. They don’t like the fact that there are lots of them. They don’t like the fact that they are successful. Humans don’t like other animals to be as successful as them. And on the …
Pigeons are great. Don’t treat them as pests and vermin Read More »
As I recently wrote a post about a woman breastfeeding a cat on an aeroplane, I inadvertently bumped into this video so I thought I might discuss it as well. I am not obsessed with breastfeeding! It is just the way stories evolve when you are doing research on the Internet. This is a sad …
It is International Day for Biological Diversity and people ask what is commensalism. The search engine, Bing, has an example on the home page today which is a downloadable wallpaper photograph by Richard du Toit/Minden Pictures. It’s a great photograph of a Burchell’s zebra stirring up insects from the grass as it grazes with a …
Commensalism: cattle egret eats insects stirred up by grazing Burchell’s zebra Read More »
This is a repeating short video without sound: a gif. I’ve decided that it is a lesson to us all. Close interspecies friendships take many forms. Companion animals don’t have to be cats and dogs. This cow has a relationship with the woman which is every bit as good as any other relationship and better …
A brilliant example of the sentience of animals and how they form interspecies friendships. Humans should be cognisant of this aspect of the animal world. It is very beautiful. The goat did a great job. When I see this, I think of the abuse meted out to goats across the planet. They do tend to …
Goat charges in and saves chicken from attacking hawk Read More »
An amazing video. These two have a very close relationship. It looks absolutely genuine and awesome. The sloth does the best he/she can to pet and cuddle their beagle friend with three huge claws getting in the way. But he is very gentle with them. I am very impressed. This is another interspecies friendship. There …
Rescued sloth tenderly pets and cuddles beagle friend Read More »
Well, the answer is pretty obvious and that is that camels can be dangerous. It’s an interesting discussion because we see camels as work animals. We see them as rather placid, compliant animals earning a living for their owner. That’s the image that I have of this ubiquitous animal. And, as I understand it, they …
Aggressive squirrels are attacking NYC residents and the concerning aspect of this behaviour is that, at the moment, people are unsure why. The lady in the video had a rabies jab just in case but apparently, as you will hear in the video, squirrels very rarely get rabies and therefore the risk to people is …
Aggressive squirrels are attacking NYC residents Read More »
