The Fox's Den

allcreatures:

A six-year-old chimpanzee named Joya got bored waiting for her turn to eat and vented her frustration by hurling rocks at her family. She was soon put in her place by an adult chimp, who confiscated the stones and forced her to sit down. British photographers Anup Shah and Fiona Rogers captured the scene in the Republic of Guinea. Picture: Shah Rogers Photography/solent

reallykatie:

Barrie Hayman’s duck is quackers about his master

He was shunned by his feathered family when he was just days old.

Now, nearly three months on, this ugly duckling has found an unlikely father figure to replace them – in the form of his breeder, Barrie Hayman.

The fairytale friendship was forged when Mr Hayman rescued the distressed duck, named Star, from his incubator. 

He noticed Star was panicked when he started doing a manic ‘waddling dance’ in an attempt to escape his hostile siblings.

Since then, the Indian Runner duck has become inseparable from 65-year-old Mr Hayman.

The 11-week-old bird follows him everywhere, from the pub to the supermarket, and even watches the rugby with him. 

Mr Hayman, from Eastleigh, Devon, said: ’He just won’t leave me and so now we go everywhere together,’ said Mr Hayman, who has been breeding ducks for 18 months. 

‘I’ve not trained him to follow me, he just seems to like it and he is one fantastic duck - I’ve never known any like it before.’

YOU GUYSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

(via allcreatures)

(via g-r-a-d-y)

(via favoritezipper)

Themba, the baby elephant, lost his mother after she fell down a cliff. The team at the Shamwari Rehabilitation Centre rescued him and for two years they dedicated their lives to getting this very special orphan back to the wild.

Themba soon befriended a very patient sheep named Albert, and together they formed a bond as strong as any human friendship. Albert never left Themba’s side and would follow Themba and his carers on long walks; share in Themba’s favourite snack of acacia pods; and when Themba took a dust bath, so did Albert. If any of the other animals at the Rehabilitation Centre tried to join in their fun and games, super protective Albert would make it quite clear that they were most unwelcome. The unlikely pair also made friends with a baby giraffe, and enemies with a baby hippo.

(via formerlyroxy)

(via wecansexy)

theanimalblog:

(via: home-of-amazons)

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lalage:

Happy belated world ocean day. Every day is world ocean day.

(A nice write-up on thresher sharks and their fastidious dedication to personal hygiene here)

(via pseudo-tsuga)

thebigcatblog:

India male tiger plays doting dad to orphaned cubs
Forest officials in northern India say a male tiger appears to be caring for two orphaned cubs in an extremely rare display of paternal feeling. The cubs lost their mother in February in the Ranthambore tiger reserve. Officials there say they believe the male tiger, named T25, is their father.

Wildlife experts say cubs are usually raised by their mothers and male tigers often kill cubs they come across. Officials believe there is no recorded evidence of males behaving like this.

Read more.

Photo: Camera trapping of the tiger cubs with the male tiger.

(Thanks to typingundertheinfluence for the story tip!)

allcreatures:

This is the horrifying moment a swan swept in and plucked a tiny gosling from under the nose of its distressed mother. The two adult geese attacked the swan, forcing it to release the terrified gosling from its deadly grip. The picture was captured by Felix Buscher at the Rieselfelder nature reserve, near the town of Munster in Germany. Felix said: “I have never seen anything this dramatic while taking photos of nature - usually the subjects I shoot are very tranquil. But it is great that everything has ended well. I’ve been back to check on the fledglings and even the one caught in the swan’s mighty beak is OK.”