#animals

Over millennia of following us into new habitats, crows also learned that we are a fickle species. Humans provide food, but sometimes we harass or kill them. Our settlements can be alternately deadly or sheltering. To “avoid danger and take advantage of riches,” Marzluff says, “they can’t not be interested in people.” So they’ve evolved to watch closely what humans do. And their keen attention may be key to a friendship that’s singular.

As expected, rats housed in enriched environments – complete with toys, space and companions – learned to drive faster than those in standard cages. This finding supported the idea that complex environments enhance neuroplasticity: the brain’s ability to change across the lifespan in response to environmental demands.

In a study published in The Lancet, about twenty-nine percent of patients who recovered from Russell's Viper venom had signs of hypopituitarism or Sheehan's Syndrome. Both conditions have unremarkable symptoms, like a constant feeling of cold and an unusual amount of fatigue. What distinguishes them is a sort of reverse-puberty in adults. They lose their sex drive. They lose fertility. They lose their body hair, especially pubic hair. Men lose facial hair and muscles. Women lose curves as the condition causes them to lose weight. Some doctors even report loss of mental faculties as the condition progresses.

The unnamed pensioner from Catamarca discovered he had been duped when he took the two animals to his local veterinarian to be vaccinated. The ferrets had been given steroids to increase their size and had been groomed to make their coats resemble those of pedigree poodles.

What, seriously? How about DON'T LET YOUR PET CATS OUTSIDE. That, or ACCEPT THAT YOUR OUTDOOR CAT FRIENDS ARE PREDATORS. "To stop Ursa's onslaught on animal-kind, Loewen took the advice of the UGA researchers and outfitted her naughty kitty with a cat bib and bell attachment (pictured below), effectively disabling any of Ursa's predatory prowess."

Getting surrounded by friendly raccoons who want to eat baguettes that you’ve duct-taped to your legs is almost like being the princess of your very own Disney movie. Almost.

Scientists play detective after 20 "perfectly intact skeletons" of ancient sea mammals are found thousands of feet away from the Pacific Ocean

To help get the point across, PETA has drawn Mario in his Tanooki suit holding a racoon’s head with blood dripping all over the floor. You can also play Super Tanooki Skin 2D the game, which puts you in the role of a skinned raccoon performing jumps as you try to catch a flying Mario who is wearing your blood-drenched skin.

Not exactly. Okapis are the only known relative of the giraffe, but with the silhouette of an antelope. They are notoriously skittish, so adept at avoiding other animals in the wild — including other okapis — that Western researchers didn’t even document their existence until 1901.

Watch as Jub Jub the St. Bernard dog balances everything from a laptop to a lacrosse stick to a handgun to a slice of pizza, and nearly everything in between, in the video, Jub Jub Nose How To Balance. Jub Jub’s human companion, Stew McFadden, has created a Facebook profile for this talented po...

That rabbits like to hop is hardly a secret. But now European rabbit enthusiasts have harnessed their bunnies' natural talents to create a new spectator sport... rabbit showjumping.

"Were the singers human, researchers might also explain the duets in terms of affection. Since they’re birds, the researchers describe the songs in terms of maintaining pair bonds, predator avoidance and conferred reproductive advantages. Vignal plans further studies of the duets, but thinks there’s more than reproductive imperatives in the tiny birds’ hearts and brains."

"Nobody believed me, so I had to record it."

"Police in Warren, Ohio, have released video of a woman who was interrogated by officers with a baby squirrel in her shirt."

"Glass blown, floor standing lights combining the skills of the glassworker and the playfulness of clowns and children’s entertainers. If only glass were as pliable as balloons!"

"Here was Chip as I found him: curled up, cold, appearing to be dead, in the middle of a trail in the Olympics."

"please don't feed fingers to the animals"

"Six abandoned kittens have found an unexpected new mother figure - a pet rabbit."

"A cat is baffling his owner by wandering off at night before expecting to be collected by car every morning at exactly the same time and place."

"Vancouver Aquarium: two sea otters float around, napping, holding hands. SO CUTE!"

"Fighting rabbits get what they deserve."

"Close the curtains so the bears can't see the refrigerator."

"People Shocked To See Affection Between Pair"

This is a security exploit of the brain's cuteness center.

"This site's mascot, the pudu (actual species name: pudu pudu) is the world's tiniest deer, a two-foot-tall little ungulate with big wide eyes and a body that resembles a Vienna sausage balanced on four wobbly toothpicks."

"I have no idea who originally took these, but hey, they're kittens."

Proof that you can find anything on the internets. "bunny yawn pictures are extremely rare"

Cute, tiny horses used as guides to the disabled.

"A few mantis shrimp though, over the years, have shattered the aquariums."

"The mighty bunny weighs a massive 7.7kg, and his ears are a lengthy 21cm - almost as long as most pet rabbits are tall. And he is almost 1m tall."

"This sequence of photos is quite astonishing. Particularly the heroic final shot."

"THE popular image of Tyrannosaurus rex and other killer dinosaurs may have to be changed as a scientific consensus emerges that many were covered with feathers."

"Say, I'd like to eat a little something. You got something? What you got? Any kind of food is good. I just want something to eat."

"Animal experts in Croatia say a bear has learned how to trick people to let him in by knocking at the door."

"Here are some toys. These toys are cubes. These toys are animals."

"Dutch farmers have devised a hot and spicy way to stop rabbits and rodents from munching their lettuce, carrots and wheat." Aww, poor bunnies. guess I won't share my tabasco with our bunnies.

These pictures have broken the cute-o-meter.

(thanks again, memepool.com)

Mini-cows (thanks memepool.com)

Jumpin' Jehosaphat these buggers are big!