I’ve been absent from the A/S/A scene for a couple of weeks while I started a new job with new hours at a new company. I’m writing this on a new laptop, I’m getting my hair cut for the first time in over a year next week, and I’m moving into just over new house two weeks. I also had my satchel stolen a couple of weeks ago, so I literally have a new identity (card).
It’s all amounted to a new lease on life (albeit through bleary eyes that now need to open at 5:20am).
This French bulldog sums it all up:
Three little tuataras hatched over the weekend after being incubated for seven months.
“Having hatchlings at the Zoo is a great contribution to the national breeding programme,” said Barbara Blanchard, the studbook and species coordinator for Tuatara worldwide, and Animal Registrar at Wellington Zoo. “Both parents have wild origins, so these hatchlings have good genetic diversity and are fantastic news for the Tuatara recovery plan.”
While all three hatched successfully, their sex will be undetermined for years. They’re keeping an open mind / their sex organs are difficult to see until they’re older.
A study has found the first evidence of animal grouping based on mutual interest. Bottlenose dolphins have been observed using sea sponges as hunting tools and forming cliques around it.
"Spongers spend a lot of time hunting, tend to be solitary, but clearly go out of their way when they can to meet up. You could think of them as workaholic dolphins that prefer to meet up with the other workaholics," said study author Janet Mann to the AFP.
There is now a plan in motion to allow ivory to be traded for the first time in more than two decades. It’ll be fine-tuned and presented again October, then considered for final approval next March in Bangkok.
Meanwhile, this is an elephant - tusks intact – joining a pool party:
Seven nations - Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Paraguay, Nepal, Rwanda, Solomon Islands and Syria - have been suspended from the legal trade of wildlife species. UN conservation delegates decided to penalise them for lacking tough regulations or failing to report on their wildlife trade.
Conservationists have alleged that Vietnam’s tiger farms are fronts for illegal trade in poached wildlife. The facilities breed tigers, but don’t take part in conservation programs.
In even more depressing news, a gorilla named Tatu managed to hang itself at Prague Zoo. There were no cameras in the room, so zoo officials aren’t exactly sure what happened. But they suspect it unbraided one of the ropes (usually used for climbing) and put it round its neck.
MUCH NEEDED CUTE ENDING:
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