Animals in the News

• African elephants in European zoos live an average of 16.9 years, compared with 56 years for elephants who died of natural causes in Kenya's Amboseli National Park, according to a study released in December. Here, 6-month-old African elephant Tamo plays at a zoo in Wuppertal, Germany.
  
  
  

  Roberto Pfeil, AP

• Talk about avoiding a "cat"-astrophe! In an unusual operation Dec. 9, Boston veterinarians reattached Edgar the cat's face after the feline was severely injured in an accident. The feline crawled under the hood of a car, and was likely mangled by the fan belt. The kitty should be fine.
  
  
  

  Steven Senne, AP

• It turns out that dogs are not only loyal, but they're also fair. A study reported in a Dec. 9 journal found that man's best friend will turn away or even refuse to look at you if he sees that his fellow dog is being ignored. "Animals react to inequity," one researcher said.
  
  
  

  Friederike Range, PNAS / AP

• Who was hunting who? When Randy Goodman went hunting in Sedalia, Mo., in November, he shot a deer twice. But when he got close, the buck attacked him with its antlers and hooves, knocking him to the ground. Goodman shot and permanently killed the 240-pound animal as it was running away.
  
  
  

  Courtesy of Randy Goodman / The Sedalia Democrat

• There you are! Conservationists reported in November that they found mouse-sized primates that were once thought to possibly be extinct. The pygmy tarsiers, which resemble "Gremlins," were found in an Indonesian mountaintop forest.
  
  
  

  Sharon Gursky-Doyen, Texas A&M University

• A French scientist displays a never-before-seen species of gecko at the Natural History Museum in Paris on Nov. 7. The little critter hatched in the French capital from an egg that was plucked from a forest on the South Pacific island of Espiritu Santo.
  
  
  

  Francois Mori, AP

• Scientists in Mexico City are racing to save the axolotl, also known as the "water monster" and the "Mexican walking fish," from extinction, according to media reports Nov. 2. Against all odds, the foot-long creature survived in the polluted canals of Lake Xochimilco, but a shrinking habitat and deteriorating water quality threaten its existence.
  
  
  

  Ken Lucas , Getty Images

• Looks like this young filly in West Virginia was horsing around a bit too much. Gracie the horse needed to be rescued in October after getting her head jammed in a tree trunk. Luckily a passer-by saw the whinnying animal, and used a chainsaw to cut Gracie free.
  
  
  

  WENN

• Fat Boy broke out of his stable in Newquay, England, and invaded a neighbor's yard, where he gorged himself to some fermented apples. Becoming tipsy, the 12-year-old pony tumbled into an outdoor swimming pool. It took fire crews two hours to extricate him, according to media reports Oct. 15.
  
  
  

  Sarah Penhaligon, PA / AP

• Supposedly, even pandas get stressed out. And to combat that, zoo officials in central China said Oct. 3 they've been feeding two pandas home-cooked chicken soup twice a month to reduce their stress and give them a nutritional boost. Here, one of the pandas is greeted by visitors in June.
  
  
  

  Andy Wong, AP