Tag Archives: animal

Maasai Mara, Kenya | AFP | Five-month-old bloodhound Shakaria gambols through the long savannah grasses of Kenya’s Maasai Mara reserve, her playful mood swiftly turning to keen determination as she is ordered to track a human scent. Straining at the leash, she pulls her handler along an invisible scent path …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | A suspected poacher was mauled to death and eaten by a pack of lions close to the Kruger National Park in South Africa, police said Monday, adding that little was left of the victim’s body. The remains were found at the weekend in the …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | The number of rhinos killed for their horns by poachers in South Africa dipped in 2017, but more than 1,000 were still slaughtered, the government said on Thursday. South Africa is battling a scourge of rhino poaching fuelled by insatiable demand for their horn …

Sydney, Australia | AFP | The Tasmanian tiger was doomed long before humans began hunting the enigmatic marsupial, scientists said Tuesday, with DNA sequencing showing it was in poor genetic health for thousands of years before its extinction. Scientists genetically mapped the animal — also known as a thylacine — using …

Colombo, Sri Lanka | AFP | Sri Lankan police have arrested five men for allegedly killing a wild elephant, with officers seizing ivory and tusk-cutting tools, officials said Friday. Villagers in the island’s northwest had alerted wildlife authorities after a popular local elephant called “Dala Poottuwa”, or crossed tusker, disappeared. Its …

Beijing, China | AFP | Nearly 12 tonnes of smuggled pangolin scales have been confiscated by Chinese officials — the country’s largest-ever seizure of the endangered mammal’s prized parts as it seeks to curb illegal trafficking. The pangolin, whose brown scales have earned it the nickname “scaly anteater”, is the most …

Montreal, Canada | AFP | Mice in Canada are mutating and migrating farther north in response to climate change, according to McGill University research released Monday. The study, published in the journal Evolutionary Ecology, found that “milder winters have led to physical alterations in two species of mice in southern Quebec …

Lusaka, Zambia | AFP | A Dutch and a Belgian tourist were trampled to death by an elephant in Zambia as they got too close to the animal when trying to take pictures, police said on Sunday. The holidaymakers, whose identities have not been released, were killed on Saturday while on …

New Delhi, India | AFP | A tiger which killed four villagers in central India has died after being electrocuted, an official said Sunday, ending a hunt by armed rangers for the beast. A court in Maharashtra state issued a shoot-to-kill order Friday against the two-year-old female tiger after its …

Pekanbaru, Indonesia | AFP | A giant python attacked an Indonesian man, nearly severing his arm, before hungry villagers chopped up the reptile and ate it, a police chief said Wednesday. Security guard Robert Nababan crossed paths with the giant creature while patrolling an oil palm plantation in the remote Batang …