The Portuguese Water Dog (cão de água) was bred specifically to round up fish. It can easily be trained to herd fish into fishermen’s nets. Originating in the Steppes around 700BC it was probably brought to Portugal via the Goths. It is similar to a poodle in appearance but it has amazing fishing skills. The …
The Basenji is the only type of dog that doesn’t bark. Instead it ‘sings’ to express itself. Originally from the Congo and used to chase rodents, the Basenji breed is unable to bark. But, lovers of peace and quiet, before you go and buy one bare in mind that it can still make a range …
Rabbit Show Jumping (or Kaninhop in Swedish) began in Sweden in the late 1980s and is now an international sport with tournaments being held around the world. The sport began from a rabbits enthusiasts club in Sweden who decided to hold a tournament to see whose rabbit could jump the highest/furthest. The first national championship …
Welcome to the wonderfully cute world of Rabbit Show Jumping Read More »
When staff at Kansas Zoo noticed that their Peruvian penguins seemed to be a bit bored and perhaps missed having visitors, they decided to take them to the museum. The three penguins, called Bubble (5), Maggie (7) and Berkley (8) had the Nelson Atkins Museum all to themselves due to the Corona lockdown and were …
Gyoza the pug was recently used in 343 Industries’ recording studio providing a range of grunts and grumbles that we can only guess will be some sort of frightful alien species in the 2020 video game.
Chlamydia is rife in some Koala populations which are seeing a 100% infection rate. The problem is that the young koalas eat a nutritious poop from their mother and this passes on the infection.
The word vaccine comes from “Variolae vaccinae ” which is Latin for ‘smallpox of the cow’. This is because the first vaccine was made with cowpox.
In the UK it is illegal to handle a salmon under suspicious circumstances’. This is an offence under the Salmon Act of 1986. The law was actually designed to prevent people selling fish gained through illicit means – rather than those holding them, well, in a suspicious way.
Some stray dogs in Moscow have learnt to navigate the transport system. They mimick human behaviour, hopping on and off trains and seem to know which stops are more likely to result in finding food or friendly people.
Elephant art is becoming increasingly common in zoos. There is even the Asian Elephant Art & Conservation Project, an “elephant art academy” in New York, which teaches retired elephants to paint.
About 250,000 pigeons were employed during the conflict, of which many were parachuted behind enemy lines.
At Lake Argyle in Australia, they have a freshwater marathon every year. It is the world’s biggest freshwater swim and the lake stretches twice the length of the English Channel. But what makes it even more of a challenge is that the water is infested with over 25,000 freshwater crocodiles. Lake Argyle has the world’s …
All living organisms are part of an enormous genetic tree and they all carry genetic code in the same DNA molecule at the centre of their cells. In this tree of life the chimpanzees are our closest cousins with 96% the same DNA. However we also share 50% the same DNA as a banana. All …
A group of ravens is called an “unkindness” or “conspiracy,” which seems fitting, since ravens are traditionally considered creepy. https://www.livescience.com/12781-ravens-group-living-stress.html
Sloths can hold hold their breath for 30 minutes longer than dolphins. They can reduce their metabolism and slow their heart rate to less than a third of normal, allowing them to hold their breath underwater for up to 40 minutes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloth
